Space haven
by esama
Summary: Harry won a battle only to see that the war still continued. Now trapped inside Hogwarts with no way out, he and the others search for a place to make their final stand in. Thankfully they recieve a little help from thousand years ago.
1. I, Refugees

**Space haven**

**I chapter**

"Thousand years from now?" Rowena asked softly while walking instep with the old man beside her. She shared a look with her three friends before turning her eyes back to their guest. "Thousand years is quite long time, master Merlin, yet you would have us prepare for it?"

"The best laid plans are plans laid in advance, my dear Rowena," the old man smiled at her, leaning to his staff at every step. "Thousand years may seem like endlessly long time for you, too long to be perceived even, but it will pass sooner than you think. And though you might not be around to see it, not as you are now anyway, your descendants will. The descendants of all four of you," he added, glancing at the others. "Regardless of if they will be your descendants in blood or in spirit…"

"I suppose with the path we are taking, we will have plenty of the latter," Godric smiled somewhat hopefully while he looked around. Their future legacy was still in its foundations, but once the cornerstones would be set, the castle would be build right where they walked. Castle, not for warring, but for learning. He was a warrior himself, but the though that no one would battle in this castle was quite pleasing for him.

"Indeed you will. A good friend of mine, for whom time is only another path to walk, has seen the fruits of your labour and they will be great," Merlin chuckled, waving his hand slightly in grand motion towards the building site around them. "Here, at our feet, lies the complete future of your kind. This castle will be the leading beacon of a civilisation of… miraculous individuals of miraculous skills."

"Magic," Salazar stated, simply and surely.

The elder man nodded amusedly, even though it wasn't a term he ever seriously used. "In future this castle will inspire others to build similar places all around the world and in future the skills which you have mastered and which you will teach here will no longer be the privilege of few, but all those with the affinity," he nodded again, with certain satisfaction. "Thousand years from now, not only those with your blood and those who have learned in this very castle you are only building… but all of those with the skills of reaching beyond the ordinary and turning the fantastic into reality… they will all be your descendants. They will be your students, and the students of your students, and their students…"

He nodded again and then looked at the four others with kind, though slightly solemn eyes. "But you cannot prepare for a future that great without preparing for the worst of it."

"I hate to repeat myself, but… thousand years is very long time," Rowena spoke, her forehead creasing slightly underneath her silver diadem. "Why should we worry about such distant ages? It will never affect us…" the others glanced at each other in quiet agreement, though they looked more curious than contemptuous.

The elderly man gave her a sad look. "You are so young," he whispered and looked away. "In many ways, you are very young. Young people often treat the future in very careless manner - though, I do admit, not very many of the elder people treat it any differently."

Merlin shook his head and stopped walking in wide open area in the foundations. Everything was still very much unfinished but he could already see that a great hall would eventually stand where he right then stood. "Your time is very brief. Not only the time you have, but the time your race has. Living creatures as individuals and as parts of one great whole are fleeting, despairingly so," he glanced at the others. "The future doesn't touch you. Maybe it never will. But indifference… ah, indifference."

"We aren't against preparing for the future of our kind, master Merlin," Helga quickly said. "We simply… the times being as harsh as they are - and the building is taking very ounce of our strength, every drop of our sweat and every reserve of magic we have," she motioned around them. "We are only at the beginning, and we have much work to do yet. If we were to… add more to the castle, we simply wish to really understand why it is important."

"Not that it's really that hard to understand," Salazar muttered. "It is a matter of conserving our race, our bloodlines, our arts and our way of life…" he made a thoughtful sound before looking at the elderly man. "But there is more - and less - to this than that. So far you have not said that whatever happens thousand years from now will destroy our kind completely."

Merlin smiled. "It is true. Your kind will go on. But differently from now." Merlin shook his head at the perplexed looks the younger ones gave him. "You four will be remembered for thousand years. But after that… only one of you will be remembered. The rest of you… you and your beliefs, your teachings… will fade."

Salazar frowned darkly though the others didn't seem too bothered by the notion. "Being remembered millennia into the future isn't all that relevant to us now, is it?" Rowena asked. "Though I admit, it is a wondrous notion, to be remembered so long after we are gone… it is not what we strive for now."

The others nodded. They were building their school for the benefit of their kind of the moment. Times were harsh for them, and would only get harsher until something would be done. So many of them were poorly learned and could barely use their talents at all. It was their wish to change that… Far, far future wasn't an issue for them. They had enough of those with the present.

The old man gave her a look and sighed. "There is more to it than that. The four of you represent the four branches of power. The forcefulness of battle, the crafty and ingenious of creation and change, the forthright of discipline and experimentation and the gentle healing and caring. Not only that, but you represent the affinities of your power. Valour, guile, wit and charity…" he motioned at the four. "And so it will remain for thousand years. But after that…"

"The morals of only one of us will remain," Salazar murmured, casting a look at the others. "Which one of us is the one whose beliefs will remain?"

"It's best that I do not tell that, my boy," Merlin chuckled, shaking his head and turning away. "It doesn't really matter either way if you choose to not prepare."

"Why not do the preparations yourself?" Godric asked curiously.

"I have, but I am concerned about different futures and different people."

"Muggles," Salazar said with certain tone of disapproval in his voice.

"I do detest that name, it's not fitting at all," the elderly man murmured though mostly to himself. "Whatever I will leave behind, it will not be found by your descendants, but by those without your affinities. Humans, muggles if you will, will be the ones to receive my legacy. This, however, must stay here. In the very heart of the future, here," he motioned around them to the foundations. "This is where it will be found by those who will need it. It is here, or nowhere."

The four younger ones looked at each other. "Well, it is only one chamber. It shouldn't be too hard to build," Godric shrugged and Salazar nodded immediately in agreement. The thought of not being remembered further than thousand years - even though thousand years was lot as it was - was bothering Slytherin. He preferred to be remembered to the very end of their kind, not just to certain point.

Rowena sighed and nodded. She didn't like it, for it interfered with the schedule of the construction which she had painstakingly planned - and hung onto. However, two of her fellow builders had already agreed and it _was_ master Merlin who was asking. "It should only delay us by a week or two," she murmured more to herself and to the others.

Helga chuckled as the three of them looked at her. "Let us do it," she simply said. There was a good reason and she had never shied away from work.

"Thank you," the old man nodded to the four of them as they turned to walk the foundations again. "I cannot quite state how relieved I am to know that this countermeasure of darker tides of time will remain."

"What is it exactly that you wish us to put into the chamber, master Merlin?" Salazar asked curiously. "It is obviously something you want future generations to find…"

"It is a pathway. A gate to a place where they will be safe…" Merlin chuckled somewhat sadly. He had his own agendas and he wasn't ashamed of admitting it to himself. The truth was, the safety of his home, the place where he had been born, was more important to him than the future generations. The city needed the protection of people just as much as the people would need the city. "In a manner of speaking."

x

Thousand years later, Harry Potter stood in middle of the very hall in which, when it had only been in its foundations, Merlin and the Founders had sealed their deal. Around him sat, stood and laid the weary and the wounded, wizards and witches fresh from yet another battle of a war they now knew they weren't about to win.

It hadn't supposed to be like that, he thought to himself while his fingers closed into tight fists. Dumbledore, the lost leader of their side and the master mind of the war's supposed end, had had a plan. But that plan had flaws in it, ones which had come to light only now, when the whole mess was supposed to be over. And though Harry, and probably everyone else inside Hogwarts, wished otherwise, they knew those flaws would be fatal for them.

The first flaw in the plan was the simple thought that the war would end with the death of Voldemort. That hadn't been the case. As afraid of death and as inconceivable as it had been for Voldemort, the dark lord hadn't been foolish enough to not prepare for it. It was the complete opposite actually. Voldemort had spent his whole _life_ preparing for his death, starting with his first Horcrux and ending with the successors. Successors, his inner circle, each and every one of them ready and willing to take the leading spot if the Dark Lord would fail.

The second flaw was that taking the dark side would be easy once they were leaderless. Even if Malfoy and Lestrange and Nott and the many, many others hadn't been there to continue their master's work, the dark side wouldn't have been easy to take at all. What with Giants and Dementors and packs of Werewolves and the recent additions of Vampires… even if they weren't exactly united as army should've been, they were very willing to fight. They had tasted power in the last year. They weren't about to let it go.

Unlike the light side which was already tired and craving for peace.

Harry snorted to himself and turned his eyes angrily to the floor. The peace had only lasted for six hours. Voldemort had died, there had been brief battle. It had seemed so easy, so simple. Within merely half an hour it had seemed like it was over once and for all. The Aurors had captured the Death Eaters - Malfoys had seemed like they had turned to the light side over their only child. Bellatrix Lestrange had seemed very, very _dead_, just like Voldemort. It had seemed like it was _over…_ finally, finally over. There had been celebrations and joy and then Harry had gone to bed, dead tired from battles, from dragon flight, from breaking into a bank and escaping from it…

Only to be woken six hours later by frantic Hermione, to find Hogwarts besieged and Malfoy's booming, sonorous enhanced voice calling for their surrender. The battle of the end had been a fraud. The "Aurors" that had captured the Death Eaters had been working for those they had supposedly captured. Bellatrix Lestrange revealed that she had miraculous abilities of revival - or very good act of playing dead. Nothing had ended. It had only taken a brief pause so that power could be shifted and new battle strategy planned.

And Malfoys… they were the best actors of all. Harry wasn't the only one who had believed that they had changed because of Draco. Hell, Narcissa Malfoy had in her own way helped Harry defeat Voldemort! But maybe that had been the point. Out with the Dark Lord who had disgraced them, and in with a Malfoy.

Lucius Malfoy had a good battle strategy. He had them cornered in a place where Apparation was impossible, and had brought down Floo and thrown anti-port-key wards in just to make escape impossible. Unlike Voldemort for whom everything had seemed to be a race, Malfoy was in no hurry to take them in a grand battle. He was baiting his time, getting to their nerves, trying to make them break. He would happily wait until they ran out of food if he had to. He had the time to wait, safely situated at the borders of Hogwarts wards as he was.

The waiting game had lasted only for a day now, and it was already bringing everyone to the edge.

"Harry," Soft voice called through his angry thinking. Hermione was standing beside him, looking anxious. "Kingsley and McGonagall want to talk with you."

Harry sighed and nodded. "How are you doing?" he asked while following her out of the hall where the rest of the students, teachers and Order of the Phoenix members were resting.

"I'm fine," the girl offered him a strained smile. But she wasn't and it was easy to see. None of them was. "I've been at the library, trying to… trying to come up with something…"

Harry nodded, not needing further explanation. They had all tried to come up with escape route. But the Floo network was down, the anti-travel wards were tightly in place, the secret passages had all been blocked, Death Eaters were patrolling the edge of the wards at all sides…. Malfoy had learned from his mistakes too - even house elves couldn't pop people out of the castle. There simply was no way.

"Do you know what McGonagall and Kingsley want?" he asked softly.

"They want to talk about the Chamber of Secrets," she said. "Ron's already with them. The three of us, and Ginny, are the only ones who know about the place now - and you and Ron are the only ones who can get in. We were thinking that if it gets to it… we can fall back there."

Harry nodded. He had thought about it too, though he didn't really like it. There was only one way in and out of the chamber. If they had to fall back there, they'd be even more trapped than before. It would be, however, the most secure place in the castle if it got to that.

Kingsley and McGonagall were in the staff room, standing around a table with Bill, Mr. Weasley, Slughorn and few other Order members. Ron was there too, he was apparently drawing a map.

"…long way down," he was explaining, motioning at the map. "I don't know if this is the only way from the toilet entrance to the chamber, though. There were lot side tunnels down there and we didn't ever really explore the place. Anyway, this wall here also opens at Parseltongue."

The Order members were nodding. "We need to go down there and chart the tunnels more fully while we have the time," Kingsley said, glancing at Harry and Hermione. "Do either of you have anything add to the map?"

Harry glanced down to it with a frown. It had been years since, but the memory was sharp in his mind about the chamber. How could it not be when he had battled a sixty foot snake there? "There's a statue here," he motioned at the end of the chamber. "Of Slytherin. The mouth opens - that's where the snake came from. I'm pretty sure there is something behind the statue, but I was a bit too busy fighting the basilisk at the time to take a look."

"The mouth opens? I think it was shut when Ron and I went down there," Hermione said, sharing a look with the youngest of the Weasley males.

"I guess it opens at Parseltongue too?" McGonagall asked with a frown. "The same pass word?"

"No, it has a longer pass word," Harry shook his head. "_Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four_," he added with a mirthless snort and translated the words.

"You can still speak Parseltongue?" Hermione asked with frown. "Even though…?"

Harry shrugged, though he too would've preferred the skill to die with Voldemort. "Never mind that now," he muttered under his breath and looked at the adults. "There were huge pipes leading away from the chamber too, but I didn't have the time to check them out at the time. I doubt they lead into the school though, Voldemort would've used them to get in before if they did."

"We will go down there to make a more thorough map about the caves and the pipes," Kingsley said. "Bill, Charlie, Arthur, you're with me. Minerva, I think it's best that you and the others start packing everything we might need down there if we need to fall back, food and other supplies," he said, turning his eyes to the woman. "If the chamber is secure enough, we will take all we might need down there as soon as possible. We might not have the time to pack if the time comes."

The others nodded and the dark skinned wizard turned to Harry. "Though Ron has already taught us how to open the doors, it seems we will need you to open the statue. So if you don't mind, Harry, we'd need you to come with us."

"I don't mind," Harry assured. He wanted to take a look at whatever was behind the statue too. It had bothered him quite a bit in the lonely hours between his second and third school year. He turned to look at his two friends. "Are you coming?"

"I want to go back to the library," Hermione said and smiled thinly. "I haven't given up yet."

"I'll help with the packing," Ron added. "I don't want to go down to the chamber until I have to. Also I want to let Ginny know - she might have some problems with the whole thing… they're best solved as soon as possible."

Harry nodded with understanding. After few preparations, Harry and the Order members headed to the girls bathroom. He was almost relieved to find that Myrtle wasn't there at the time, as now wasn't the time for her dramatics. Opening the pathway down to the tunnels with softly hissed _open_, Harry motioned the elder wizards to go ahead before following them down the dirty slide to the tunnels. It was longer and windier than he remembered, but just as dirty.

"Well, good thing my robes are already dirty from Gringotts," Harry muttered to himself with a grimace while the others quickly used their wands to siphon the grime off their robes. Taking out his wand as well, he cast a light to the tunnel along with the rest and, unlike the last time he had been there, he looked around. The tunnel was a bit bigger than he had suspected.

"It looks like we could collapse ceiling if it's necessary," Bill said, motioning at the barely steady ceiling. "If this is the only tunnel to the chamber, by collapsing the ceiling we could hold back possible offenders for a while."

"And to what end? I don't think it's exactly wise to shut ourselves here with no way out," Charlie murmured, casting light towards the tunnel leading out of the dirty chamber.

"I don't like it either, but we might have no choice in the end," Kingsley muttered darkly and glanced at Harry. "That's the way, Harry?"

"Yeah," Harry nodded and they continued onward. The cave was as winy and as messy as he remembered, and the shed skin of the basilisk still lay where they had left it. It still held the vivid shade of poison green it had had the last time Harry had seen it. Apparently years lying in damp tunnel hadn't done much damage to it.

Mr. Weasley gasped softly at the sight of it. "Harry, is that…?"

"It's just a skin, dad," Charlie said, stepping closer to it. "Seems like it's pretty well preserved, though. One would think it would rot in here pretty quickly."

"The actual basilisk is in the chamber," Harry motioned onwards and ahead they went, until they encountered the place where Lockheart had lost his memories. The rocks of the collapse that had separated him and Ron years ago in their quest to safe Ginny had been moved aside - probably by Hermione when she and Ron had been looking for basilisk fangs. It was easy for Harry and the Order members to move around them and from there the path continued for a while until they arrived at the snake doors. They were open.

The basilisk was the first thing they noticed. To Harry's slight surprise, it was in a good shape. Hermione and Ron had blasted its head to bits to get the fangs apparently, but the rest of the body was still most intact.

"You killed that thing, Harry?" Bill asked with slightly strained voice.

Harry could only shrug awkwardly and turn his eyes away. Many bad memories lay in the beast, and with its head blown it wasn't exactly a pretty sight. "Hermione and Ron blew its head though, I only stabbed it with a sword."

Kingsley grimaced. "…right. Arthur, Charlie, Bill? How about you go ahead and start checking the chamber. See if you can find other tunnels or secret passages and check out the pipes Harry mentioned," Kingsley commanded. "Harry and I'll check out the statue."

They all agreed and while the Weasleys scattered around the chamber, Harry and Kingsley walked to the end of it. The statue was just as Harry remembered it. Ape-like with thin long beard that almost reached the floor. Grimacing at the thing, Harry glanced at the dark skinned man at his side.

"I don't think reaching the mouth will be easy, it's pretty tall…" Kingsley murmured, craning his neck slightly. "There has to be another way inside - or behind it. Try if you can make it move, Harry."

The teen nodded and concentrated into mental image of a snake. "_Move aside, Slytherin, greatest of Hogwarts four_," he hissed, but nothing happened. Frowning, he tried again. "_Step aside, Slytherin, greatest of Hogwarts four_." Again nothing. Shrugging his shoulders at Kingsley, Harry kept trying; changing the words until finally "_Open the path for me, Slytherin_," did the trick. Like coming out of sleep, the statue shuddered. Then it smoothly stepped aside as if it was living, revealing a door way which was several feet tall, tall enough for a giant even.

"Now we're getting somewhere. Stay behind me, Harry," Kingsley said and, with his wand directed forward, stepped into the pathway.

Suppressing the sigh of irritation, Harry followed. He had fought a basilisk when he had been twelve and had defeated Voldemort no more than a day earlier - and he was still being protected? Well, it didn't matter at the moment, this was a bit more important than his annoyance.

Unlike Harry had suspected, the pathway didn't lead into a secret library or a treasure trove or a laboratory. It went on twice as far as the Chamber of Secrets was long until finally it opened into a large circular room. The room was surprisingly clean considering that the basilisk had been living in it - there were no skeletons or grime inside it, only circular indent where the basilisk had apparently slept over the centuries. The chamber was pretty scarcely furbished too. There was only a large stone tablet with writing on it, some sort of weird podium and a large circular arch with seven triangles inside it.

"What the…" Kingsley muttered, looking around as if expecting something more.

"Doesn't look like what you'd expect from something hidden by Salazar Slytherin, huh?" Harry muttered with a frown. "I was sort of expecting a potions laboratory."

Kingsley nodded in agreement while glancing at the odd podium and the arch. Confused he shook his head before turning to look at the stone tablet. Harry stepped closer as well, leaning in to read the writing etched into the dark stone. It was unreadable to him, written in language he couldn't understand.

"It's old English," the Auror muttered, shaking his head and turning from the tablet. With a wave of his wand he conjured a silver shaded lynx, a Patronus, and spoke. "Bill, come to the chamber behind Slytherins statue, we need you to translate something." With that said he sent the Patronus away with a wave of his wand.

"Someone really needs to teach me how to send messages with a Patronus," Harry muttered, pointing after the lynx. "That would've been dead useful few months ago."

Kingsley threw a smile at him. "I'll teach you if we get the chance," he promised, before turning to look at the circular arch. "Now what could this be…? Do you have any idea, Harry?"

"None," Harry shrugged, he too looking at the arch. "When I was down here the last time, I thought that the Chamber was pretty much it - and that the statue only housed the basilisk… it wasn't until later on I even considered that there might be more here."

"The legends of the Chamber of Secret are pretty old, but they've always been about a hidden chamber that houses a monster…" the Auror murmured. "It was always interesting thought, the rumours were around even when I was a student here, but they were never exactly… realistic. Why go through the trouble building a chamber just to hide away a huge snake in it?"

"It makes a lot more sense that the basilisk was guarding something… in sort of clichéd fairytale way," Harry agreed, looking back over his shoulder when he heard steps. Bill Weasley was hurrying towards them.

"I see you found something," the red head said, glancing around in the chamber. "What is this place?"

"No idea, but we figure that the basilisk's job was guarding it," Kingsley said and nodded towards the tablet. "And we think that might explain further. Can you read it?"

"Read it?" Bill murmured and stepped closer to the tablet. "Well, I can read it, but understanding it another thing…" he leaned forward, running his fingers over the carved words. "Oh, old English. You know that I'm a Curse Breaker, not an ancient language expert?" He glanced at the Auror with amusement.

"But you do have experience with old languages, right?" Kingsley asked, folding his hands. "What with working with the goblins in Egypt and all…"

"Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Old English are two different things, you know," the red head snorted and shook his head. "Well, thankfully for you I have studied other languages too - and this seems to be written pretty recent dialect. My Old English is a bit rusty, though, so… just give me a moment."

While Bill tried to translate the words, Harry stepped around the tablet and to examine the circular arch with Kingsley. "It doesn't look like it's just for decoration," Harry muttered, reaching his hand and touching the side of the arch. "It's metal," he added, knocking his knuckles against it. "Solid metal. Doesn't even make a sound."

"Might be some sort of magical object. Who knows what it's for though," Kingsley murmured. He was frowning at the symbols in the inner ring which seemed to be imbedded in the arch. "Harry, don't those symbols look familiar somehow?"

Harry blinked and turned his attention to them. There were probably over two dozens of them in the device. "They do look familiar," he murmured, staring at one of them hard. For some reason he got sudden feeling that he had learned about them in the north tower. And in north tower he had learned about stars, planets and rest of the night sky… "Constellations," he said, pointing. "There's Leo and that's Leo Minor right next to it." He remembered those two pretty well since Sinistra, Trelawney _and_ Firenze had had him studying them back when he had been a student. Trelawney had even tried to make him make some sort of astrological pendant with Leo in it.

"You're right…" Kingsley frowned. "Why in Merlin's name would there be astronomy - or possibly worse yet, divination - device in Salazar Slytherin's secret chamber?"

"_In Merlin's name_ sounds about right," Bill cut in, making Harry and Kingsley turn around. The redhead motioned at the tablet. "This was written by him. The arch is his as well."

"Merlin?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows with confusion. "Okay, I slept as much in history as the next student, but even I know the Founders came few hundred years after Merlin."

"Well, the Founders could've found and brought these things from some place where Merlin left them, who knows," Bill shrugged and made a motion with his hand, asking them to come closer. Once they did, he motioned at the writing. "This thing explains what those are," Bill motioned at the arch and the podium. "They're some sort of… gate way. Or a portal. Merlin left it behind because he could foresee some future time when wizards would have to use them to escape…"

"Escape what? Where?" Kingsley asked while Harry turned to look at the ring device again.

"War, I think," Bill answered with a frown and shook his head. "The portal, according to this, leads to many places, depending on which symbols are inserted. There is one list of symbols in here, according to Merlin it leads to… to…" he glanced up. "Atlantis."

Harry blinked with confusion while Kingsley gasped. "Atlantis?" he gasped. "The lost dwelling of the Ancients?"

"The what of the who?" Harry asked with puzzlement.

"It's one version of the many tales about the origins of magic, Harry," Bill answered with amusement. "One pretty old belief says that magic was given to wizards by people much older than us, the Ancients. They were also said to have taught Romans how to build roads, and so on. Atlantis was said to be their home, which was… well, lost. After losing it, they came to Earth."

"They… came to Earth? You mean that they lost their home somewhere not on Earth?" Harry tilted his head to the side. "Why hasn't any of this been taught in history classes?"

"Because very few believe in the old stories," Bill chuckled and folded his hands. "This seems to be like proof that there is some truth to them…" he turned to Kingsley. "If this really is a gate way out of here, we… could use it as a means to escape."

"To a place we know nothing about," Kingsley murmured worriedly.

"Also, isn't it a bit convenient to find a thing like this here, just when we need a way out of Hogwarts?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows. After the Peverell Ring, the Sword of Godric Gryffindor and Snape's memories, he had learned that looking into the mouth of the gift horse wasn't stupid at all. And not only that, you needed to have the horse's dental records and get the animal checked by veterinarian as soon as possible. "What if the whole thing is a hoax? Gateway to a lost home of some ancient people, left behind by Merlin, found here, in Hogwarts… it's a bit suspicious, don't you think?"

"There's that too," Kingsley nodded in agreement.

"It is pretty darn convenient," Bill mused. "But what if it is real? This could be our only way out of this place."

Kingsley frowned and seemed to give it a thought. Then he turned to Harry. "Harry, go and get McGonagall and Flitwick. Let's see what they have to say about this. We'll figure out what to do once we have enough opinions on the matter."

"Sir yes sir," Harry nodded, casting a final look at the circle before turning to leave with mixed feelings churning in his chest.

Whilst it was true that a place they knew nothing about was better than a place they knew all about and were trapped in until they'd probably die, he had his doubts. Voldemort had had access to the castle - and not only fifty years ago, but while Snape had been the Headmaster. And even if Snape had been on the right side, even he hadn't been aware of all Voldemort's comings and goings. Who was to say that Voldemort hadn't planted the whole thing, and it would explode or something if they tried it?

But the options were bad as they were. Wait until their food ran out and Malfoy moved in when they were struggling, or fight to the death for a cause that was already lost. Harry grimaced. He had been somewhat of an optimist considering the war before, but his optimistic plans had never included the defeat of Voldemort giving away to something worse. Malfoy had barely done anything and they could already tell that he had better grasp of Voldemort's armies than the Dark Lord had had.

Harry had lost his parents and his godfather to the damn war and in the last two days he had lost even more than that. The idea of sitting around waiting to see if there was any more he could lose - and there was - wasn't exactly inviting option. So whilst he remained suspicious, some part of him still hoped that maybe… maybe the gateway was their way out.

x

"Well, I can't say what it is but I can say what it isn't," Filius Flitwick spoke later on in the staff room, after he and Minerva McGonagall had spend good three hours examining the objects in the hidden chamber behind the Slytherin's statue. "It isn't in any way related to dark _or_ light magic."

"But it has magic in it," McGonagall added. "As far as we can understand it, the device - and it is one single device, the arch and the podium are both connected - gathers magic from the space around it. And it has been doing so for many years."

"So the device has… charged itself with magic?" Hermione asked curiously. "Like a conductor and battery in the same thing?"

"If that means what I think it means, then yes," McGonagall nodded and turned to look at the others. "It's logical to assume that the device uses magic to power it, rather like the engines of Hogwarts Express. However we aren't entirely sure what the device does. All we know that whilst it gathers magic into it, it hasn't been constructed by magical means."

"It was build by hand?" Arthur asked.

"The design is too complex for that. It might've been built… well the way muggles built their devices," Flitwick shrugged eagerly. "They have the means of being more precise with their building because they use other devices to build their… devices."

"You mean those, those… robors?" Arthur asked excitedly

Harry cleared his throat before the man could get going. "But that thing is thousand years old right?" he asked and glanced at Hermione. "Muggles didn't have too much technology back then, didn't they? Nothing that good anyway."

"No, they didn't," she agreed.

"So it is possible that the ring is what the tablet says it is, a portal to another realm build by the ancients?" Bill asked.

"I guess that might be true," McGonagall nodded hesitatingly and looked around. "But I doubt we really can know for sure unless we… try it."

"Well, if it's way out of this place, I say we do it," Slughorn spoke, getting up to his feet with some difficulty so that everyone could see it. "Our chances here are poor. We can't get out but Malfoy and the Death Eaters and all the lot they have with them can get in any time they want. They are just playing mind games at this point, trying to tire us out. And we will, eventually. We all know we will."

"The device could just as well blow up the moment we try it," Harry pointed out softly. "Or maybe it's something Voldemort left here when Snape was in charge. It might just open Malfoy an extra pathway inside. Or it could be like the Archway in the Department of Mysteries."

There was a moment of silence before Charlie coughed softly. "We can put up shields and barriers around the device when we try it," he offered. "And maybe someone can volunteer to be the first to try the arch way."

"It only works one way," Bill said quickly. "The one who goes in can't come back the same way - they'll die."

"How inconvenient," Harry said flatly, raising a single eyebrow meaningfully. Bill flushed and then grinned sheepishly.

"Well, we have two-way mirrors. If someone will volunteer, they will take one of a pair with them and with the mirror they can say if it's safe to go through," Slughorn shrugged. "And maybe you can send a Patronus through the gate even if you can't send a human. You can't kill a Patronus after all."

"But… but if we go, what if we can't come back?" Hermione asked, looking around to the Order members in the room. "What about our families outside Hogwarts? Lot of us inside are students, some of us have magical relatives that are bound to be persecuted by Malfoy if they hadn't already been. What about them, what will happen to them if we leave and never come back?"

Harry frowned darkly. Some of them had responsibilities outside Hogwarts. He for one had a young child he was supposed to look after now that… now that Tonks and Remus were both gone… and the idea of leaving young Teddy Lupin behind did not sound all that inviting.

"There… might be nothing we can do about that," Kingsley murmured. "We can't get out of Hogwarts and only Malfoy can get in. Even house elves can't Apparate us out and they can bypass most wards."

"Point of which we're the living proof," Ron murmured to Hermione and Harry.

Harry blinked. They had tried it with Kreacher many times, but the house elf had always Apparated away alone, leaving them behind at Hogwarts. But Kreacher _had_ managed to pop out. "Kreacher!" Harry spoke out, making everyone turn their eyes on him. "I have an idea," he shrugged just as the elf popped to his side.

"Yes, master, what can Kreacher do for you today?" the old elf drawled.

"Kreacher, when we tried if you could pop us out of Hogwarts earlier, you got out of the wards, right?" Harry asked.

"Kreacher did, Kreacher appeared at the House of the Blacks, but Kreacher failed to bring master along with him," the elf muttered and drooped. "Kreacher failed master… and master didn't let Kreacher punish himself for it…"

Harry smiled awkwardly to the others in the room and then frowned at the elf. "Kreacher, though you can't Apparate anyone out, do you think you could Apparate people in?"

Comprehension dawned to the faces around him. "Harry, you're a genius!" Hermione said. "If this works, everyone can ask their loved ones to come with them and we can leave this war together!"

"If it works," Harry nodded and looked up to Kingsley and Slughorn who were both looking thoughtful now. "We could also have the elves bring us supplies and stuff we might need - food for one," he added. He wasn't about to embark another journey without food, not after the problems it had given them whilst hunting the Horcruxes.

The people around him started to talk all at once, already planning what to get and whom to bring and so forth. Kingsley cleared his throat loudly to make them quieten down. "Before we can plan _anything_ we need to make sure of two things. One, that the elves _can_ bring people here. And two, that the arch really is what the tablet says it is. If it isn't we'd just be bringing more people here to die," he said and turned to Harry.

People quickly quieted down. At the centre of their attention, Kingsley turned to Harry and then to the house elf at his side. "Kreacher, I want you to go to a place called Smogvalley Cottage. You will find squib named Arabella Figg there," he said while taking out his wand and conjuring a piece of parchment and writing supplies. After jotting down a quick message, he handed the parchment to him. "Give this to her. If she agrees to try the Apparation, try and bring her here. You understand?"

"Master?" Kreacher asked, turning to look at Harry.

"Find Mrs. Figg, and give her the note. If she agrees to it, try to bring her here," Harry said. "If you can't bring her, come back here as soon as possible."

"Yes, master, Kreacher will do as you ask," the elf nodded and took the note from Kingsley. Then, with a pop, he vanished.

"There's no use waiting here for him to return. If this works the way we want it to work, we need to start preparing for it, and fast," Kingsley muttered and turned to the others. "We need to pack _everything_," he said darkly. "Food, clothes, beds probably too. Anything and everything we need."

"The library," Hermione said, standing up quickly. "Most of us are under trained, we might need all the extra knowledge we can get to survive in this other place."

"We might want to bring with us some living plants as well," Pomona Sprout said from back of the room. "It might be best if we can grow our own food. Herbs, vegetables, fruits... enough for us to survive on in case there is nothing there we can eat."

"Good call," Kingsley nodded in appreciation. "Do we have everything we need here? All the plats you think we'll need…?"

"Some, but not all. If the house elves can Apparate things in and out, I would like to send some messages to my colleagues and ask their help. They should be able to get everything we need. And if it's possible for the house elves to Apparate living things into Hogwarts, the house elves can bring the plants here."

Kingsley nodded in agreement and then looked around. "Does anyone else have suggestions?"

"Centaurs, in ter forest," Hagrid spoke carefully. "Shouldn't we offer 'em a way out too? And the mermaids in the lake?"

"The mermaids will have to stay here, we don't have the time to get them proper transport and they should be fine either way, living in the bottom of the lake as they are… But go and contact the centaurs. We could use their help." Kingsley nodded and turned to look at the rest. "Let's start packing," he said and as people started heading out of the room, he turned to Harry. "If Kreacher brings Arabella along, let me know immediately," he said. "I'll be in the Headmaster's office."

Harry nodded. "Will do," he said and then watched how the man hurried away from the room, talking quickly with Arthur Weasley. Shaking his head in wonder, Harry turned to look at Hermione and Ron. "What do you think?" he asked.

"I think I will head to the library and start packing," Hermione said determinately and stood up. "I need to make another expanded container, they won't all fit into my purse…"

"I will go and let Ginny and George know about this," Ron said. "We need to let the Army of Dumbledore know too. And the rest of the people here."

"Not all of them will want to go," Hermione muttered.

"If we _can_ go at all…" Harry muttered and stood up, stretching his hands. "Well, the ones who won't come with us will have pretty poor chances of survival. Well, unless they give into Malfoy and decide to become their Merlin damned servants…"

Hermione and Ron shared a grimace. "Let us know how it goes with Kreacher," Hermione then said and turned to leave.

"Will do," Harry nodded and then watched how they headed away. Collapsing to sit down in his armchair again, he sighed. "This is getting pretty hectic," he muttered, running his hand over his face and trying not to be too hopeful about the whole thing. Kreacher would probably fail and then the gate thing would just explode to their faces…

Just then, a pop sounded in the room, accompanied by squeak of surprise. Harry looked up from midst of his fingers to see very proud looking Kreacher and bit winded Arabella Figg who was holding no less than three cats in her arms. "Oh, that was… that was interesting!" the elderly woman gasped and looked around. "Where are everyone? Where is Shacklebolt?"

Harry chuckled mirthlessly. The world seemed to be against Harry Potter the pessimist, he mused while standing up. "I'll take you to him," he said. "Come on."

x

Lucius Malfoy's voice was booming across the landscape around Hogwarts. "…surrender now and we will exhibit mercy," the man's magically enhanced voice said almost with jaded tone. "For you magic thieving mudbloods we offer quick and painless death, much more humane than the life sentence at Azkaban. Halfbloods, you have important part in the future of our society - every empire needs good servants, after all. And though we should kill you blood traitorous purebloods, your punishment will be light…"

"Is it me or does he sound bored?" Ron asked with mirthless snort.

"Well, he has been spouting that litany for two days now," Harry muttered and frowned. "It might be a recording though. I think he'd have more important business at Ministry, you know? Enslaving people, enforcing bigoted laws, turning the wizarding world into hell hole…"

Ron grunted in agreement and turned to look over his shoulder to the balcony doors at the sound of them opening. "Hermione, Ginny?" he asked. "Here to see if he has come up with anything new?"

"No. Kingsley and McGonagall are about to make an announcement about the portal," Hermione said. "We thought you might want to listen."

"I thought everyone already knew about it," Harry raised his eyebrows. The word about the portal had spread like a wild fire after Arabella Figg had arrived and Kingsley, McGonagall, Slughorn, Sprout and Madam Pomfrey had started shipping people and supplies into Hogwarts. With the corridors filled with crates and boxes, bags and things like that, it wasn't hard to notice that they were preparing for something.

"They do, but there are lot of kids here who are hesitating about it," Ginny smiled sadly while reaching for Harry's hand. Entwining his fingers to hers, Harry gave her encouraging squeeze. She seemed to need it.

"McGonagall thinks that making an announcement will help people here do the right decision," Hermione shrugged. "Come on. We should be there to back this up.

Which meant that _Harry_ should be there to back it up. Shrugging his shoulders, the two wizards followed the two witches into the entrance hall and then into the great hall. There were only chairs and benches in the hall, and no tables. Most of the benches were filled with under age witches and wizards, students of Hogwarts, most of whom where whispering quietly.

Hermione and Ginny let Ron and Harry to the front of the hall, to sit with the members of the Order of Phoenix. Kingsley and McGonagall were talking quietly amongst themselves, apparently not sure what to say at first.

"What do you think about this, Harry?" Neville asked under his breath, leaning in slightly. "You think this will work?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders. He really didn't know. Part of him still hoped that they could stand and fight and win… but he knew it wasn't possible. Even if they managed to win the battle here, there would be another coming around soon enough. If they would manage to kill Malfoy, another Death Eater would eagerly take his place.

"It would be pretty cool… if it worked," Ginny murmured quietly. "Pretty scary too."

"If it worked. If it doesn't, we won't be going anywhere," Harry said with a sigh and wrapped single arm around her shoulders. She offered a grateful smile to him and then looked up as Kingsley cleared his throat.

"I'm sure all of you have by now heard of the portal we found underneath Hogwarts, and the possibility of using it to get out of this situation," the dark skinned Auror started. "And we've already discovered that the house elves can bring people to Hogwarts, even though they can't take them out of here…"

He made the matter brief, explaining their plan. That supplies would be gathered, that they would have enough plants of all sorts ready for transport so that they could start crops to grow their food in the new realm. He explained that that they would take everyone willing to go with them - families and friends, wizard, muggle or squib - as long as they didn't side with Malfoy and the Death Eaters in any way.

"Everyone will be tested with Veritaserum and Legilimency before we go," he said. "We don't want anyone willing to harm any of us on board."

He then explained that a volunteer would go through the gate first and then let the others know if it was safe to go through or not. "Hagrid has offered to be the volunteer," he added, motioning at the half giant who nodded proudly.

"And if it doesn't work?" Someone in the crowd asked. It was start of many other questions like if they could come back, what would happen to magical world after they left, what kind of lives they could have in the other world, shouldn't they stay and fight, and so forth.

"I know we are all afraid," Kingsley calmed them down. "This is very dark times we are living, and this chance we have might be a long shot at best. But it also might be all we got. It is true that we could stay and fight, but it is most likely that… that we will not win. Of course there is always hope, but the chances are against us."

"If the other realm is liveable and safe, we can start over there," McGonagall started it. "We can rebuild ourselves out of the reach of the dark forces of the Death Eaters. We can put up a new school and several stores in certain magical locations have already agreed to come with us if the gateway works. For one, Mr. Ollivander has already arrived at Hogwarts," she motioned at the elderly wizard who was still recovering from his ordeal with Voldemort.

"But this is our home!" someone called. "We should fight for it!"

"What chances do you have here, really?" Neville snapped. "I'd like to fight my way out of this too, but we're out numbered, and it seems like the entire magical world of Britain is against us," he stood up. "If the portal works and the other realm is liveable, who here will go? Raise hands."

Hermione, Ron and Ginny all raised their hands along with the entire Order of Phoenix and majority of the school population. Harry joined them reluctantly.

Neville's hand was up as well as he continued. "Most here are all set to go. The rest of you won't have any chance here. If you're muggleborn, Malfoy will kill you. If you're halfblood, you will be turned into a slave. And if you're pureblood - especially if you're a witch - you will turn into Merlin damned breeding stock for the purebloods."

"You know, Neville makes pretty good leader," Ginny whispered to Harry with thoughtful look about her eyes.

"Yeah, he's pretty good speaker too," Harry nodded.

"Now if that is the sort of future you can look forward to…" Neville snorted. "Be my guest. Stay. Have fun. Thankfully you can't come crying to us when your live is turned to living hell because unlike you we had the intelligence to leave in time."

There was deep silence as Neville sat down again. His grandmother patted his back proudly, her chin held high up.

"Well, I guess that's about all there's to it," Kingsley murmured, nodding at Neville with appreciation.

McGonagall nodded as well and then addressed the crowd. "We are going to leave _today_ if possible. The sooner we go, the better as we don't know how long we have before the Death Eaters move in," she said. "If you have people to contact, you can do so through the house elves. They can bring anyone who wishes to go here as well. Your belongings should be put in magically expanded containers so that they can be carried easily…"

As she continued with the instructions, Kingsley stepped towards Harry. "Come with me, I have a request for you," he said under his breath. Squeezing Ginny's shoulder in parting, Harry stood up and followed the man.

"Hagrid talked with the centaurs but they aren't yet sure if they want to go," the Auror said once they had exited the Great Hall. "As far as we can see, there are two groups within the herd. One led by their old leader, Magorian and another lead by centaur named Ronan - and Ronan's part might be willing to go. They however want to speak to you."

"To me?" Harry asked with confusion. "Why me?"

"Because of who you are," Kingsley shrugged. "According to Hagrid they said something about fates bending around you. And considering centaurs and fate..."

Harry nodded. Centaurs were even more divination oriented than Trelawney was. "I'll do it," he said, already starting to pull the Invisibility Cloak from his pocket. "Are they in the forest, or…?"

"They should be waiting for you at the edge of the forest. Try and convince them to come. We could use their help and their insight," Kingsley said with a dark frown. "Stay out of sight," he added as parting words before turning to leave.

Figuring that the man had lot to do, Harry shrugged his shoulders and pulled the invisibility cloak on. Then, once he had made sure that he was out of sight, he headed towards the doors which lead out and headed to the yard. It was still light outside, but the situation of the moment made it seem rather dark. There weren't even birds singing.

While wondering if they would take owls with them - Mrs. Figg's cats were already set to go - Harry headed for the edge of the forbidden forest. He could see some movement at the edge and as he entered the forest, he could soon tell that there were several somewhat large creatures near by. The centaurs had him almost surrounded the moment he entered the woods.

"Harry Potter?" familiar voice called him. It was Firenze who was making his way towards Harry through the undergrowth. Apparently invisibility cloak wasn't enough to hide from a centaur.

After making sure that there was no wizards and such near by, Harry pulled the cloak off. "I'm here," he said, folding the cloak over his arm. "Sorry about this," he added, motioning at the cloak. "It's not exactly safe for me to wander out of Hogwarts at the moment."

"That is very understandable indeed, Harry Potter," another voice joined in. It was Ronan, one of the centaurs Harry had met in his first year and the one centaur who had leaded their assault during the battle of Hogwarts. "Good day to you."

"Ronan," Harry nodded a bit awkwardly. "I was told you wanted to see me. Erm…" he glanced around as more centaurs approached them. There were at least dozen of them. And not just males, but females as well. Harry could see two foals too, hiding behind their mothers. He hadn't known there were so many centaurs in the forest - and this was supposed to be half of the herd?

"We did want to see you," Firenze agreed. "The stars have been clouded in these past few nights, but we have seen many things in the many nights before. Pegasus has been… shining."

"Pegasus?" Harry asked and tried to remember what that mean in astrological terms.

"We have known for a long time that a journey is ahead," Ronan murmured somewhat sadly. "And that once we would have to make a choice between these lands and a future unknown. That is why our herd originally moved to live in these lands from our ancestral pastures further to the east… we knew that a journey was ahead."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "How long have you been… waiting for this journey?"

"Many, many years," Firenze smiled briefly before sighing. "But now that the parting is so close, the stars have become clouded. They offer us no direction, leaving the choice to us. Some of us have already decided to stay. Others…" he looked around at the other centaurs. "Others still hesitate."

"Do you know what will happen if you will come with us?" Harry asked slowly. It seemed that the centaurs were sure that there was indeed a journey ahead. It was more of proof than anything else so far that the gateway would indeed work.

"We do not," Ronan said morosely. "That is why we hesitate."

"Some of us," an elderly female centaur spoke out rather sharply. "Are worried about what sort of co existence we would have with you wizards if we would go." She threw her head slightly, letting her hair whip around. "We will never lower ourselves to subservience! Not even to you, Child of Stars!"

"No one is asking you to do that, never," Harry said quickly, for a moment wondering about the name she had given to her, but deciding that this wasn't the moment for that. He looked around. "If we go we already know that survival will be a team effort. We will work together. You will be our equals - more than that, you will be advisors. Already you know more than we do!"

He motioned upwards, to the cloudy sky. "And little bit of guidance from above would help us a lot," he said. "But very few wizards have even ounce of the skills you all seem to have in spades. You know that wizards are inferior to you when it comes to understanding the destinies and reading the stars. And we will probably need ability like that to guide us."

There was a silence after his awkward speech. Firenze then dug his front hoof into the soil. "Weighty words from the Child of Prophesy," he murmured, glancing at the other centaurs meaningfully.

"We will not be servants," the female centaur muttered again, looking at the wizard closely.

"Never," Harry said determinately.

She was quiet for a moment before nodding. "Very well, Child of Stars. I believe you," she said. The younger female centaurs nodded in agreement as well but remained quiet as the eldest of them continued. "My name is Entau. I will follow you to the path in stars. I will follow your lead. For now."

"As will we," Ronan said and the male centaurs nodded, making Harry wonder if the herds had some sort of split between females and males. "We will gather our necessities and arrive to the gates of Hogwarts shortly."

"I'll be waiting for you, then," Harry nodded. "It's good that you're coming with us," he added.

The centaurs nodded to him before one by one turning to leave. One of the youngest foals gave Harry a curious look before running after her mother. Harry watched their departure for a while before pulling the cloak back on. While heading back to the school, he couldn't help but wonder if he had turned himself into some sort of spokesperson between the centaurs and the wizards.

x

"…has to be offered to them!" Hermione was saying to Slughorn when Harry entered the staffroom. He had just helped the centaurs settle into the great hall and had after that headed to see how the rest of the preparations were going.

"It's not right to just leave them out there defenceless, even if they are hiding," Hermione continued agitatedly. "They're basically defenceless against the Death Eaters! After we're going to hide, Malfoy's no doubt going to hunt them down to make example out of them because he can't make one out of us!"

"What's going on?" Harry whispered to Ron who by the looks of it had been following the argument between Hermione and Slughorn for a while.

"They're talking about the muggleborns who are in hiding," the redhead whispered back.

"I understand where you're coming from, my dear girl, but it might be that they are better off hiding," Slughorn said. "I've lived on the run myself, it's not as bad as it seems --"

"I've lived on the run too and trust me, it can get lot worse than you think," Hermione snapped back, her nostrils flaring. "Because unlike you, some of us are honourable enough not to break into the houses of muggles to live in them!"

"How about we just calm down a little," Kingsley wedged himself between the two. "Hermione, I know what you have every right to be worried about this, but we don't even have way of contacting the muggleborns who are in hiding. Also, some of them are already here - you did see how many of them returned to fight…"

"What about those who didn't, hm? We're going to leave them here to be killed, huh?!"

Harry shook his head with amazement and looked around in the room. Most seemed to be following the conversation, except for… Hagrid who sat slumped in the corner of the room, looking utterly heartbroken. Stepping aside Ron, Harry approached the half-giant.

"Hagrid? Is there something wrong?" he asked.

The thickly bearded man glanced up and let out a small sniffle. "It's… it's Grawp," he admitted sorrowfully. "Kingsley and McGonagall, they say… they say that he can' come with us. He doesn't fit through ter gate, yeh see… An' it would be 'n issue feeding him there…"

Harry had no idea what to say to that. In all honesty, he was a bit relieved that the giant wasn't coming along. "Well, he has gotten adjusted to living in the forest, hasn't he?" he asked carefully. "He can manage on his own, right?"

"Ar, he can," Hagrid nodded and sniffled. "Yeah, he got real good fishin' while we were hidin' in ter caves… good at huntin' too… Grawp is…"

"…but Hermione, we can't save all of them," Ron had entered the argument in the centre of the room. He was holding her by her shoulders. "We can barely get out ourselves. They ran away, and we have no way of contacting them. They will have to… to get by themselves. And we need to concentrate on getting by, ourselves. You know?"

Judging by the way Hermione seemed to slump, she apparently did. Looking slightly relieved, Kingsley moved away from them and noticed Harry. "The centaurs?" he asked, approaching Harry and Hagrid.

"They're in the great hall. Eight males, nine females and five foals, all ready to go," Harry nodded and then quickly added. "Also, they're pretty prideful so I suggest you don't even consider having them carry anything. The only reason they agreed to come is because I promised that they wouldn't be our inferiors in any way."

"Of course they won't be," Kingsley nodded. "It's good that they're coming, though. Their abilities with divination will be a great help - if they choose to divulge their secrets. We have to modify the entrance to the Chamber so that they can get through comfortably, but that's no problem," he trailed away in thought.

There was a moment of quiet. "Now what?" Harry then asked.

"After the house elves finish bringing people here, we will start taking supplies down to the chamber, and people after that," the Auror said. "McGonagall and the other teachers are already taking things down there. Once everything is all set, we will try the gate. And if it works, we will wait until the house elves can get the store managers and their supplies - as they agreed to come only if the gate works."

"It's pretty much assured that the gate will work," Harry said. He definitely had no doubts anymore. "So the house elves might as well start Apparating the stores here."

"What do you mean?" Kingsley raised his eyebrows

"The centaurs wouldn't be here if the gate wasn't about to work," the teen shrugged.

The elder wizard considered it and then nodded. "Good point. Well, that's good for us," he said before frowning. "Do you think we should destroy the gate after we go?"

"At this side?" Harry asked and thought about it. "Yeah, I think it should be done. Or at least the Chamber should be brought down to block the path to the gate. We don't want anyone to follow us, after all."

"I have something that might do the trick, in both cases," George intersected and grinned grimly. "Latest branch of Weasley Wizarding Wheezes. They make quite the bang. With enough of it, we could bring entire Hogwarts down."

"Let's not go that far," Kingsley said. "But I would like to take a look of these products if you don't mind."

Harry glanced after them as they left and then turned to look at Hagrid again. "Maybe you should go and say goodbye to Grawp," he suggested. "Make sure that he knows to hide and stuff like that."

"Yeah, yer right," the half giant murmured and got up to his feet with a huff. "I'll say goodbye fer yeh, Harry."

Harry nodded and smiled after him before turning to Hermione and Ron. Taking steps towards them, he eyed Hermione who seemed pretty distraught. "You alright?"

"…I will be," she sighed, leaning her cheek against Ron's shoulder. "It just seems… cruel. There are so many muggleborns out there, and… they can't leave like we can."

Harry chuckled. "Yeah, they can. They don't even need a huge magical portal to do it - they can take a plane and go live some other country," he said, patting her shoulder fleetingly. "As muggleborns they should have enough knowledge how to survive in the muggle world too. So I think they will be alright."

She offered him a watery smile and nodded. "What did Kingsley want you to do?" she then asked.

"Talk to the centaurs. They were hesitating about whether they were going to come with us or not. Now half of the forest's herd is coming with us," Harry shrugged. "I guess my opinion has some value to them, considering the Prophesy, and all."

"Firenze?" Ron asked thoughtfully.

"And about twenty others," Harry nodded and glanced around. "Where's Ginny?"

"She's helping the Dumbledore's Army pack at the room of Requirement," Ron said. "They've got things like bedrolls and tents and stuff there, things we will probably need."

Harry nodded. Hermione ran her hand over her eyes and then looked at Harry. "You know, I've been thinking. You should go and get the Elder Wand," she said quietly. "From Dumbledore's tomb I mean."

"What?" Harry snapped.

"We might need it, you know. That wand is the most powerful artefact we have, and we might need all the help we can get," Hermione said, biting her lower lip. "No one but the three of us needs to even know you have it, you can keep it secret unless we really need it."

"Actually… I doubt that. Everyone thinks you still have it," Ron disagreed with a frown. "I even heard someone saying that they'd have nothing to worry about in the other realm because _Harry Potter has the Elder Wand_…"

"Well… yes. It has become somewhat of a symbol of hope. As have you, Harry," Hermione said and smiled sadly. "You… should get it. If it's necessary you can just throw it away in the other realm, but for now I'd rather be safe than sorry. You know."

Harry grimaced before nodding. "Alright. But I'm not getting the Resurrection Stone," he said.

"Actually --" Hermione started, glancing at Ron who looked at Harry hopefully.

Harry raised his hand before she could continue. "Never mind, I'll see if I can find it," he muttered. She probably had another really, really good reason why they needed it. And he could already tell Ron's reason. Probably the entire Weasley family wanted to say proper goodbyes to Fred - and Harry had the way to do that.

"But no one's using the ring here," he said determinately.

"Well, it's your ring," Ron shrugged his shoulders awkwardly, but he looked relieved.

Harry just grunted and headed for the exit. It was a bad idea, he could already tell. In many ways, the Stone was much worse than the Wand. Hopefully it wouldn't even work in the other realm.

x

"With all of Hogwarts stores, we will have food for about two months," Sprout was saying to Kingsley when Harry returned from his most recent quest for the Deathly Hallows.

"More if we ration ruthlessly," Kingsley murmured while Harry moved to join Hermione and Ron.

"They're going over what we're bringing with us, to make sure we're going to be alright," Ron explained while Harry sat down. "They've gone over the sleeping issues, medicine and potion stores… stuff like that."

"Also the libraries and rest of important things and devices have been packed," Hermione said under her breath. "Dumbledore's devices, books and the Pensieve too. They've decided not to take the portraits they. They're too linked with Hogwarts magic and might simply cease to work in the other realm…"

"The food stores might last three, maybe even four times longer if we use enlargement charms on them from the start," Flitwick suggested. "I can start enlarging them once we get through."

"But in the end the food is going to run out," Sprout said with a worried frown. "The first thing we need to do in the other realm is to either find a food source or set up enough gardens to grow our own food. Now, thanks to my colleagues, I have all the seeds to grow just about anything I need, mundane food plants and magical herb, but I will need lot of help."

"I think people will be more than willing to help with that. We all need to eat, after all," Kingsley said and folded his hands in thought. "So far we have close to three hundred people going - good majority of them either students or recent graduates," he murmured. "And that's only if the shop keepers come with us… three hundred people shouldn't be too hard to feed."

"Keeping them in line might be another thing. Especially since most of them are students," McGonagall murmured, sharing a knowing smile with Flitwick and Sprout.

"That shouldn't be a problem, professor," voice joined, making them turn around. Bill had entered with his wife. "If it's all right with the present crew… some of Fleur's family would like to join us."

"My sister," Fleur said. "And some of my cousins wish to come with us. They fear they will be persecuted for having Veela blood in them…"

"And with things being as they are, the bigotry of Britain might spread," Bill shrugged.

"The more the merrier, but I don't see what this has to do with keeping the people in line," Kingsley asked with confusion.

"Have you ever seen a fight next to a Veela?" Bill asked and grinned when Kingsley only frowned. "Me neither."

"In one French prison, they make it a point to have one or two Veela blooded witches present," Fleur smiled. "It's the most peaceful magical prison in France."

"Well, it'll be good to have peacekeepers," Kingsley muttered with mild grin and then glanced around in the room. "Does anyone have anything to add?"

"I do," Bill said and handed him a parchment. "The house elves have finished bringing people and supplies. The people are a bit anxious about the whole thing and there are few who still have doubts, but… they're ready to go."

"Well, good, because it seems like we're about ready to go as well," Kingsley nodded and looked at McGonagall. "We need to have the house elves to start taking rest of the supplies down to the chamber. Also, if it would be possible, I think it would be best of some of the house elves would come with us."

"About half of them have agreed to it already," McGonagall nodded. "But they will only allow themselves to be freed if they can be bonded the place we will be living in the new realm…"

"I thought that there was supposed to be Veritaserum and Legilimency tests on everyone who are going," Harry muttered to Ron and Hermione while the Order Members continued with their preparations. "Did they decide that there isn't time for it?"

"No, Bill and Slughorn have been doing them for the last hour or so," Ron said and offered him a grin. "No one thought that you needed testing though, after all you've done. We haven't been bothered with tests either, though."

"Did you find the ring?" Hermione asked.

Harry didn't answer, merely lifted his hand. The ring was still bit dirty - he had dug it out of the ground where someone's steps had pushed it - but it still fit his middle finger like a glove. "I also have the wand," he said reluctantly before shaking his head and changing subject. "Are our things packed?"

"Everything's in the bag, except for whatever you have with you," Hermione assured, lifting her beaded bag.

"Good, I suppose," Harry nodded.

"Alright," Kingsley spoke out. "It won't take the elves long to take all the supplies down, so we will start guiding people down there already. I have here copies of the list of everyone going," he waved a wad of parchment. "Cross out anyone who has gone down to the chamber, alright? It'll show on the other parchments. Harry, Hermione, Ron, since you know the way, you need to take people down there as well."

"Time to get to work, I guess," Ron said and stood up. "I just wish we could've done this all after we had bite to eat and few hours to sleep… ah well, busy, busy, busy."

Harry and Hermione shared a smile before following him. As they took lists, Harry glanced at Kingsley. "Has the path way been modified? I was thinking of taking the centaurs…" he said to the man

"We turned it into a steadily sloping tunnel," Kingsley answered. "It's bit longer and takes longer to walk through than the pipe did, but it should suit the centaurs better."

Harry nodded before taking a copy of the parchments and then heading to the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione. Outside Malfoy's voice was again booming: "… than the life sentence at Azkaban. Halfbloods, you have important part in the future of our society…" but no one was listening to him anymore.

"Alright, people, it's time to get going," Ron called out over the chatter of great hall, making everyone quiet down. "Everyone who are ready to go, raise your hand and we'll take you down to the chamber…"

As people started lining and Ron demanded their names so that he could cross them out on the parchment, Harry glanced around. "Luna," He spoke at the sound of the petite blonde girl who was standing next to her father. The both of them were carrying huge orange rucksacks which had been decorated with popcorn and bottle caps. "You two ready to go?" he asked with amusement.

"Yes, Harry. We're really excited about this adventure," Luna said with a happy smile while Xenophilius gave Harry an awkward smile.

"Listen, Harry, I'm really sorry about the --"

Harry raised his hand and waved the matter aside. "It's all right. Everyone got a bit mental in the last months, it's not a problem," he said and glanced around. "Anyone else ready to go?" he asked.

"W-we are ready, aren't we honey?" a terrified looking woman in muggle clothing said, holding the hand of Dennis Creevey and a man who was also wearing muggle clothes.

"You must be the Creeveys," Harry smiled sadly he hadn't even known Dennis had been at Hogwarts during the battle, but supposed it didn't matter right then. "I'm sorry about Colin. He was a good wizard."

"You're kind to say so," Mrs. Creevey smiled a watery smile, squeezing her son's and her husband's hand tight enough to turn their fingers red. "You're Harry Potter, right? I've heard so much about you from Dennis and Colin. They both look up to you so much."

"That Bill-bloke explained the whole portal thing to us," Mr. Creevey spoke, trying to push aside his sorrow for curiosity. "But we don't quite understand… does it lead into some sort of alternate reality, or…"

"We don't know. All we really care is that it leads out of here," Harry answered. He reached out and squeezed Dennis's shoulder, as he seemed to need the encouragement. Then he glanced around. "Ronan, Entau, do you want to come with me now or will I pick the herd up later?" he called to the centaurs who were waiting at the corner of the great all.

"We'll go with you now," Entau decided and Ronan nodded in agreement.

"Alright," Harry said. He crossed out the Lovegood and the Creevey families from the list, as well as the centaur herd. He glanced at the others who were going to be guiding people down to the chamber. As they noticed that he was going to take the herd, they apparently decided to let him go first. Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Let's go then."

"It's nice to see that some of you centaurs are coming with us," Luna spoke as they left the great all. She was looking at Entau. "We won't be as lonely there like this."

"I suppose so," Entau offered with a surprisingly gentle smile. "You have eyes of a stargazer, foal."

"Oh, I don't think I'm a foal anymore. I'm already almost seventeen," the blonde girl answered with a carefree smile. "But I've done some stargazing. Stars are fascinating. They tell many stories, you know. Some of them happy and some of them sad."

"Indeed they do," Entau said, now looking curious. "What do you think the stars have had to stay lately?"

"I haven't got to see them lately, I'm afraid," Luna said. "There have been clouds you know."

Harry smiled to himself. Trust Luna to get along with centaurs, he mused before glancing behind as he heard one of the centaurs make annoyed sound. "Ailil!" one of the female centaurs spat. "What have I told you? You should've left them in the forest, you silly little --"

"Is there problem, Dympna?" Entau asked sharply.

"Ailil brought with her a cluster of Fairy eggs," the younger centaur answered, motioning at the small brown foal who was trying to hide behind her mother's legs. "I bet there is a fairy whirring somewhere about as well. She housed one of them next to her sleeping spot."

"Oh, Fairies. They're good fortune you know," Luna said, quickly stepping closer to the child centaur to see the bundle of twigs which looked like a bird's nest in the foal's hands. "A nice cluster. The mother must've been healthy."

"We need to take them back to the forest," Dympna muttered, throwing a glance towards Entau and then at Harry. "We can't bring them along with us."

"Why not?" Harry asked and offered the terrified foal a smile. "We could use some good fortune. And Fairies are pretty harmless too, aren't they? They wouldn't be a problem, I think. Given that the mother wants to come, that is."

"You are quite kind, Child," Entau murmured and Harry could just hear the capital letter in the word _child_. The elderly centaur smiled. "Fine, we shall take the fairy eggs with us. Ailil, if your fairy friend is still around, tell her to join us. We wouldn't want to take her cluster from her and leave her behind."

The smile the little foal gave Harry was blindingly wide.

The path down to the chamber had definitely been changed. The entire girl's bathroom had been changed into a tunnel entrance. And it was definitely a tunnel and not corridor - the floor was soil.

"Oh, thank stars. These stone floors were starting to make my hooves ache," Entau murmured as the centaurs followed Harry into the tunnel.

"I didn't know Hogwarts had a place like this," Dennis murmured, looking around.

"It didn't. There was a secret passage here, but it was pretty uncomfortable to take so McGonagall and the other professor transfigured it into this," Harry said while taking his wand out. "Seems like they forgot something, though," he murmured and started conjuring lights.

"Oh, let me help," Luna said, taking out her wand as well. The lights she conjured were considerably more eccentric than Harry's. Harry narrowed his eyes at her and promptly started to make the weirdest lamps he had seen in aunt Petunia's house decoration magazines. She answered by starting to make hers float like soap bubbles. By the time they reached the end of the tunnel, the lamps looked pretty peculiar.

"Alright," Harry muttered. "This is the chamber of secret," he said. "You can wait here. The portal itself is there," he motioned at the corridor opening beside the Salazar Slytherin's statue. "But don't go there. You might get in the way."

"We shall wait here, Child," Entau said with a nod. "But how long do we need to wait?"

"Few hours maybe, but we're trying to get everything done as fast as possible," Harry said, almost jumping when a box appeared out of nowhere beside him. He grimaced. "As you see, the house elves are still bringing supplies."

"Very well. We can wait," Ronan said as the herd started to settle down.

"We'll wait too," the Creeveys said, and the Lovegoods nodded.

"Alright. Just… don't touch anything. It's all been packed to be ready to go, messing it all up now would delay us," Harry gave them a brief smile and turned to leave just in time to see Ron arriving with four families.

"Nice lamps," Ron said to Harry. "Did Luna make them?"

"I made half of them," Harry grinned while walking past them. Not much after he passed by Hermione who had pretty much the same question in mind. With a grin Harry continued onwards.

"It's lucky that the Death Eaters don't seem to be watching us too closely," Charlie was saying when Harry returned to the Great Hall to pick up more people. "So far they haven't noticed that anything is going on."

"Let's try to keep it that way," Kingsley nodded and glanced at Harry when he noticed. "Harry, could you please take Professor Trelawney down to the chamber?" he asked, motioning at the woman who was on her knees on the floor, reading tarot cards. She had three crystal balls at her side and what looked like scattered rune stones. "She's… disrupting us."

"Alright," Harry answered with a sigh and looked around. "Anyone else set to go?" he called

"Bad luck, bad luck," Trelawney was mumbling. "Thousands feet of water and cold metal! Death by drowning, by sinking!" she gasped and looked up. "You!" she pointed at Harry. "Death with you!"

"Death with you too, Professor," Harry answered, trying not to grimace at the smell of sherry that hung about her and looked around again. "Anyone else ready to go?! Oliver, is your family set to go?"

"We're almost ready," the former Gryffindor Quidditch captain said. It looked like he was shrinking brooms while his parents were checking their backpacks. "Just give me a minute."

"We're ready to go, Harry," familiar voice spoke, making Harry look up. It was Parvati Patil. Padma was standing behind her with a man and woman who were obviously their parents.

"Hi Parvati, Padma," Harry offered them a smile. "Anyone else?" he asked and noticed someone waving at him. "Anthony, your family all set?"

"It's just me and dad, but we're all set," the former Ravenclaw offered a smile and nodded at the elder wizard at his side. "Potter, this is my dad, Jared."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Goldstein," Harry nodded, shaking the man's hand briefly. "Despite the circumstances."

"You too, Mr. Potter. I heard you're responsible some spectacular things that have happened here. People have had lot to say about you," the blonde wizard smiled. "If there was time, I'd like to hear more."

"Maybe there's time later," Harry shrugged.

"Oi, Terry, Michael. I and dad are going ahead. Are you guys ready to go yet?" Anthony called at two other Ravenclaws.

"We're all set!" Terry Boot answered and grinned awkwardly at Harry. "Hi Potter." He had both his parents with him along with sister too young to be Hogwarts age. It looked like his mother was a muggle, judging by the way she was looking around wildly.

"Boot," Harry grinned back and glanced around. Michael Corner's family soon joined them - he seemed to have two siblings, both too young for Hogwarts.

"Alright, we're set to go," Oliver Wood then bounced to join them, his parents following him. They looked like they were equally as sporty as their son, hoisting their obviously heavy backpacks up with ease.

"Well then, let's go. Professor," Harry glanced at Trelawney and sighed at the sight of her still doing a tarot reading. "We don't have the time for that professor," he said and took out his wand. With two waves, everything was packed in her purse. "Time to go."

"Death with you, you fiend!" she grumbled.

"Yes, yes, death with me. Up to your feet now, Professor," Harry said, hoisting her up. "Someone willing to help me with Trelawney? I can't drag her down there all by myself."

Oliver quickly took the professor's hand and together they started to head away from the Great Hall. The Corners, the Boots, the Goldsteins, the Patils and the Woods followed them, talking amongst themselves and comparing what they brought along with them.

"Mom packed half the house, I swear," Oliver murmured with a brief grin over the drooping form of the Divination professor. "She's pretty good at packing charms."

"She's not the only one. You can probably fit a house inside Hermione's bag," Harry snorted while trying to cross out the names from his list with one hand.

"Thousands of feet of water," Trelawney murmured and sighed mournfully. "We're all going to drown."

That trip to the chamber definitely seemed longer than the first one. When Harry got up to the castle after that, the darkness outside was complete and somewhere a bell was sounding the midnight. He couldn't help but feel a bit anxious because of it.

"We need to speed things up. The house elves have already finished taking down the supplies," Kingsley said when Harry walked pass him in the Great Hall. "Now we just need to get people down there."

"Well, we've already gotten most down it seems," Harry said glancing around. "Andromeda," he called at the sight of the woman who looked unnervingly like Bellatrix black. "You and Teddy ready to go yet?"

"We're ready. Pretty much everyone around here seems to be ready," the woman said, walking towards him and promptly handing the baby to Harry. While the teen looked down to the sleeping boy with shock, she snatched his list to see how many had been taken down already.

"Good," Andromeda muttered with a decisive nod. "You," she then pointed at one family. "And you, and you and you. Get your things together, we're heading down to the chamber."

Harry threw a look at Kingsley who offered amused grin before heading to usher other families as well. As Harry followed Andromeda out of the Great Hall, it felt like he was one of the ones being ushered rather than the usher.

"How're you doing, Harry?" Andromeda asked as they walked.

"Pretty good considering that I haven't had much sleep in the last few days," Harry answered, still holding young blue haired Teddy Lupin awkwardly in his arms. "You?"

"I'm doing horribly," The woman snapped. "My daughter is dead. My daughter's husband is dead, _my_ husband is dead! This goddamn war has killed just about _everyone_ around me!"

"I'm sorry," the teen offered meekly.

"Yes, well… it's not your fault," the witch muttered before throwing a glare at him. "Though I do expect you to play your role in Teddy's life. With Dora and Remus gone, he will need a man in his life." She nodded like the whole deal was sealed with that. "He'll need a father."

"Ah, but I --" Harry stammered and blinked rabidly. "Wait, _what_?!"

"Um…" Lavender Brown, whose had been one of the families Andromeda had selected, smiled awkwardly at Harry. She had bandages on her arms and neck and by the look of her limp, she still hadn't recovered completely from her injuries during the battle. "Congratulations, Harry, you're a father, huh?"

"Shut up," the wizard answered, looking down to the child in his arm. "I'm just Teddy's _god_father, that's all…" The idea of another orphan growing without a proper father figure like he had done wasn't exactly heart warming. Especially since there was a good enough godfather around to take the role. Still… it was pretty terrifying to suddenly have a kid in his arms and have the kid's grandmother announce that he was suddenly the kid's dad.

"You'll do fine," Andromeda said as if reading his thoughts. "With some training."

"Joy," Harry muttered, gaining a wide grin from Lavender. Harry ignored her in favour of Teddy who stretched and yawned in his arms before dozing off again.

x

Hermione's parents hadn't been found. No, they hadn't even been looked for. Harry frowned, trying to wrap his mind around the concept and somehow failing. Hermione hadn't made a single attempt to find her parents. She hadn't sent a single elf. According to her, they wouldn't have found them anyway.

"They're fine where they are," she was saying to Ron who, like Harry, didn't really get it. "I modified their memories. They're happy, fine… they won't even miss me. And what more, the Death Eaters will never know where or how to look for them…"

"They're your _parents_!"

"I know. And I want them to be happy, free and safe. And they are. Here," she motioned around them in the Chamber of Secrets. "Here they probably wouldn't be." After a moment of unconvinced silence, he looked at Harry and Ron and smile. "It's alright," she said. "They're fine. And I'm fine. I have you two. And the Order, and the Army and the… rest."

Ron shook his head between sadness and amazement. "Sometimes you're the strongest person I've ever known," he murmured. Harry would've nodded in agreement but he was too busy hiding his amusement at the way Hermione's smile softened.

"Mr. Longbottom, what is the meaning of this?!" McGonagall's voice snapped over the soft chatter of the crowd around them. Harry and his friends followed the sound with their eyes to where McGonagall stood with her hands at her hips, starting at Neville. Behind Neville stood his grandmother… and his parents, who were looking around with utterly bewildered looks about their faces.

"Oh my god," Hermione murmured, stepping closer to Harry. "Are those…"

"Neville's parents," Harry murmured, stepping forward and quickly starting to wade his way through the crowd of witches and wizards. It looked like Neville's formidable grandmother was both keeping Neville's parents up right and from wandering. She also looked like she was getting ready for a fight.

"Mr. Longbottom," McGonagall sounded before switching to look at the elder witch. "Augusta, surely you can see what a bad idea this is? You should've left Frank and Alice to St. Mungos. We cannot take care of them --"

"Left them? You would have me leave them to a world run by Death Eaters?!" The elder witch asked in outrage even while pulling her daughter in law closer. "Never in my life -- Alice and Frank might not be as _healthy_ as some, but I will not leave them here, without anyone to take care of them, to be killed!"

"Madam Longbottom, we will barely have the capacity to take care of our selves, how do you imagine we can take care of… of long term patients?" McGonagall snapped back.

"I will take care of them," Neville said in, his face set in expression of stubborn determination.

"No, Neville. _We_ will take care of them," Augusta Longbottom said with equal stubbornness. "I have basic training as a healer - Madam Pomfrey can give me some pointers… besides it's not that hard thing to do, take care of them. It's not like they're mortally ill," she snorted. "We Longbottoms have for generations taken care of our own, and we will continue to do so. You can have my word on that!"

"Professor," Harry spoke up, seeing that the Transfiguration professor was gathering more wind to her storm. She snapped her eyes to him, her nostrils flaring in rage. Harry smiled awkwardly. "We can't exactly send them back," he said slowly. "You know? With the wards up?"

"And we can't leave them here, at Hogwarts, alone," Hermione agreed, giving Neville a quick smile.

McGonagall almost growled before, with apparent physical effort, calming herself down. "Very well," she said before turning to point very accusing finger at Neville and Augusta. "They are your responsibility. In every issue."

"Of course," Augusta nodded stiffly.

With a last cutting look, McGonagall turned around and started to yell at a family of four who had brought their six very large dogs with them.

"Thanks, Harry," Neville murmured after she was out of hearing range.

"It's alright," Harry nodded, glancing at Frank and Alice. The former was frowning at a near by wizard like unable to tell what the man was, while Alice was trying to pick up something from the floor. "I wouldn't want to leave my parents either, especially if they were… you know," he motioned at the two mentally handicapped. "They will be better of with us than left behind in St Mungos."

"Right you are, Potter," Augusta Longbottom nodded with certain determination before noticing someone. "Algie, there you are! Here, come, take Frank…" she said, handing her son over to elderly wizard who apparently was another of Neville's relatives.

"Though, didn't anyone notice when the house elves popped your parents out of St Mungos?" Ron asked worriedly, his gaze directed at Neville.

"Probably. That's why it was done at the last moment," Neville shrugged. "We wanted to avoid raising attention until it was absolutely necessary."

"Yeah. Hopefully Malfoy and the rest won't notice that something's going on until we're long gone," Harry nodded and then frowned at a familiar looking ginger cat which walked past his leg. It wasn't the only one. There were lots of cats and dogs around - and owls were swooping upon their heads, circling around the pillars holding the Chamber ceiling up. "There are lot of animals here," he muttered.

"People don't want to leave their pets behind," Hermione shrugged and smiled while picking the ginger cat from the floor. "I hear someone even brought chickens and roosters with them."

"Mom did too," Ron nodded. "She wanted to bring the pigs too, but… Kingsley wouldn't let her."

"Is that Crookshanks?" Harry asked with surprise, staring at the cat. "He's so thin!"

"I don't think he has been eating well in the past year. I left him at the Weasleys, but… I think he might've been stressed," Hermione shrugged while pulling the large cat more comfortably to her arms. "He'll get better with few good meals, won't you Crookshanks?"

"Quiet down!" Kingsley's voice suddenly boomed across the chamber. Everyone fell silent to listen. "Good. We will attempt to activate the gateway now. After Hagrid steps through and gives us the word, we will start going through in as _orderly fashion as possible_. Once you are on the other side, get out of the way so that more people will get through. Once most are through, the professors will start transporting supplies through. I expect you to levitate them out of the way, because even though everything is packed pretty tight… there is still lot of stuff. Alright?"

There was moment of silence as no one argued. "Alright, good," Kingsley said and his voice faded out. People started to whisper softly in anticipation

"Let's try to get to the front," Ron murmured eagerly, trying to crane his neck so that he could see over the crowd. "I want to see the gate."

"You'll see it eventually, be patient," Hermione said while checking that she had her beaded bag.

"I'll stay here. I want to make sure that the centaurs get through comfortably," Harry said and glanced around. "Where's Ginny?"

"Since Neville's with his family, she's probably with the Dumbledore's Army. They're bringing lot of stuff," Ron shrugged and fell sharply quiet at the whooshing sound that echoed in the chamber, accompanied by gasps of astonishment. Then the excited mumbling in the front grew to rather loud chatter. "I guess they got the gate working," Ron said with a grin.

"Now let's just hope that it's what we hope it is," Harry said, though he wasn't too worried anymore. The presence of the centaurs had killed most of his suspicions.

The few minutes of waiting that followed were tense and filled with whispers and murmurs. Harry could almost imagine Hagrid stepping through the gate way and Kingsley and McGonagall bowed over a two-way mirror, waiting for Hagrid to speak into his. It took surprisingly long, though and it was making everyone nervous.

"It's safe!" McGonagall's voice called over the crowd and relieved sighs sounded across the chamber.

"Let's start getting through. Orderly fashion, people. Full families, please, make sure that all your family members and your personal belongings are with you," Kingsley joined in before their voices faded into the chatter.

"I guess this is it, then. This is real," Harry murmured and took a deep breath. "We're really leaving Hogwarts. Leaving Britain."

"Maybe leaving Earth entirely," Hermione answered and grinned sheepishly. "Quite the adventure, huh?"

"And here I was hoping we would've had enough of those for a life time," Ron grinned back.

"Well… at least life shouldn't get too boring anytime soon," Harry laughed awkwardly.

Slowly the crowd around them started to move, trickling towards the hidden chamber like very slow moving water towards a drain. Kingsley and the rest of the Order were directing the crowd in the chamber itself, getting them through as easily as possible. Thankfully there wasn't that many people in the crowd and eventually the Chamber of Secret started to empty.

"Shall we go?" Harry asked, approaching Ronan's herd. By the looks of some of them fingering their bows and looking around in irritation, it seemed like they were more than ready to move.

"Yes, let us leave," the solemn centaur nodded. Harry motioned them to go ahead, wanting to walk in the back to make sure that they hadn't forgotten anything and that the foals would stay with the herd. He also had one more to pick up.

"Kreacher!" Harry called and was immediately awarded with a pop signalling the elf's arrival. Ignoring the frowns the departing centaurs were giving Harry crouched down to the elf's level and smiled. "Are we ready to go?" he asked.

"Yes, master. Kreacher has packed all important items and books of the Grimmauld Place for transportation, master," the elf drawled. "If master wouldn't mind, Kreacher would stay behind to make sure they will get through the portal as they should."

"Alright. Do what you feels right," Harry said. "How are the other elves doing?"

"They're worried and nervous, master, but Kreacher will make sure they will come through with him."

"Good," Harry nodded and stood up. "I'll see you on the other side then."

"Yes, master," Kreacher said, and popped out.

"You have a house elf, Potter?" one centaur near by asked with snappish tone.

"Yes, Kreacher," Harry nodded. "I inherited him and the house he is bonded to from my godfather. He was in pretty bad state then, half insane actually, but I think he's doing bit better these days… not well enough to be freed safely though, you need a special sort of house elf for that…" he muttered and thought of Dobby. Shaking the sad memory from his head, he smiled to the herd. "Let's go."

The centaurs gave him some thoughtful looks, but they seemed have nothing more to say to the matter of the house elves. And thankfully they seemed more than willing to stay together and keep distance to the wizards and witches around them, so there was no trouble getting them from the Chamber of Secrets to the gate chamber.

The gate was… like nothing Harry had imagined. It was like pool shimmering water that stood on its side, except there was no water under the rippling surface. The sight of it seemed to strike the centaurs quiet and almost shy, as almost all of them slowed their steps at the sight of the gate's ethereal blue light.

"Hagrid says that there is pretty large room outside, and lot of stairs," Kingsley said when Harry and the centaurs came close enough. The Auror smiled to the centaurs. "There stairs leading down from the gate's landing are only few steps long. I think you should take them and wait for the rest of us next to the gate."

"We'll do that," Harry said after noticing that even Entau, who seemed so brave, didn't want to go through the gate first. "I'll go through first," he directed the words to the centaurs. Ronan and Entau both gave him look of appreciation.

It was easier said than done, though. Stepping closer to the gate Harry was filled with awe and slight fear. After all the things he had seen, this gate was something else. Even the Archway of Death wasn't even closely as magnificent as this gate. What did it feel like? Like water? Would he feel pain? Or would it hurt?

Harry swallowed and tentatively reached out his hand to touch the surface. It rippled slightly, but he couldn't really feel it. It was almost like it wasn't there at all. Letting out a slightly disbelieving chuckle, he glanced at the centaurs. "Feels like nothing," he said.

"So far no one has felt a thing," Kingsley said and nodded Harry to go. "Go on. It's harmless."

"Yeah… yeah, alright," Harry said, took a deep breath and stepped into the shimmering gate.

x

I have noticed slightest decline in the number of new Harry Potter Stargate crossovers latelly. Or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place. Well, anyway, here's my latest contribution to the genre. Just trying to come up with some new ideas here.

I'm trying to follow canon timelines, so before anyone ask, the current year is 1998. And yes, this will eventually be a full cross with SGA, however as far as I've been able to understand the Stargate timeline (which tends to be mighty screwy here and there) The Atlantis Expedition starts in the summer of year 2004. So, six years or so to go before full cross.

My apologies for possible grammar errors and mistakes and so forth. English isn't my first language, blaa blaa blaa. But I still I hope you liked it and so forth.


	2. II, Discoveries

**II chapter**

The first thing Harry noticed when he stepped to the other side of the gate - or out of the gate, however you put it - was that the air smelled different. It had a sort of metallic, a little stale scent. But then Harry opened his eyes and immediately forgot all about air.

"Oh, wow," he could only say.

In all honesty, he had been expecting something like the chamber where the Merlin's gate was in Hogwarts. Instead he found himself in rather large hall - though not even closely as large as Great Hall or the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts. It had very little similarities with Hogwarts otherwise too. Instead of stone, everything seemed to be made of metal. And the lights… there were lights everywhere. In the floor, in the ceiling, in the walls - in the _stairs_ where the light spelled out _words_.

"Amazin', eh, Harry?" Hagrid grunted from near by with grin in his face.

"Yeah. Wow," Harry just said again.

He would've contently stood there staring at everything around him, but the sound coming from behind him, and the blue shimmer that basked the metallic hall in its light, alerted him that he should get out of the way. As he stepped down from the landing and few steps to the side, Ronan stepped through the watery gate, soon followed by the other centaurs. Their reactions were rather like Harry's.

"Come here," Harry said, motioning at the empty corner behind him. "So that the others can get through without bumping into you."

"Did you know that the other side would be like this?" Ronan asked. The usually solemn centaur seemed awestruck, his gaze skipping over the stairs to the pillars and to the second level of the hall where wizards and witches were standing, looking around with similar astonishment.

"No, I didn't," Harry answered with absolute honesty, stepping aside to let the other centaurs get pass him.

"Better not to touch anything for now!" McGonagall was calling to someone in the second level of the hall - or was it some sort of indoor balcony? It was hard to say. "We don't know what any of these devices do, its best that we do not risk it. And do not wander off! We have no idea how large this building is, we don't want anyone to get lost…"

"Hagrid, when you came, was there anyone here? Has anyone seen people here?" Harry asked anxiously from the half giant who was helping one of the centaur foals down the steps.

"No. No, I din' see anyone. The place was all dark when I came through," the half giant said. "There you go, little guy," he muttered with a smile to the foal before turning to Harry. "Not much after I stepped through the gate, lights just started popping on and stuff. By the smell and look of this place, I'd say no one has been here in a while."

"Look of it?" Harry muttered and glanced around. "To me everything looks like it's in… pretty good condition," he said.

"Except fer the plants. They've been dead for a while," Hagrid shrugged, motioning at a large flowerpot standing near by. A very dead plant still stood in it, its leaves scattered around it, half crumbled to dust. "An' the table thingies in the upper floor are covered with sheets an' stuff."

"I see… Well, according to Bill, this place was supposedly abandoned. Or lost," Harry frowned before shaking his head. History wasn't his thing. "Never mind. Tables, you say?" He then murmured. "I think I'm going to go and take a look." He glanced at the centaurs and after figuring that they were fine where they were, he turned towards the stairs. He wanted to see the table thingies himself and find out what McGonagall meant by devises.

"Potter," the transfiguration professor said at the sight of him. "The centaurs got through comfortably, I hope?"

"Yeah, they're waiting in the lower… floor next to the gateway," Harry said, giving a look at the window at the end of the stairs. He couldn't see through it, but it was possibly one of the prettiest windows he had ever seen. Turning to look at the professor, Harry saw that the stairs continued further. "This place is… really…"

"Yeah, that's what everyone seems to be feeling," McGonagall nodded before calling down to the lower level, "Don't just stand there! Get out of the way, there should be supplies coming through any moment! Find a spot to sit and just _wait_ until everything's through. And for Merlin's sake, _don't wander_!" She snapped her eyes back to Harry. "Potter, you were raised by muggles. Can you make anything out of these?"

Harry followed her to the second floor. There was some sort of bulky tables there, most of them covered with metallic fabrics except for one. McGonagall motioned him to it. It looked like something out of the videogames Dudley had once played. Noticing that the teacher was looking at him in expectation, Harry shrugged his shoulder. "I… don't know," he said, running his fingers over the strange glass-like keys of the table which wasn't a table at all. "It… might be some sort of console."

"Console?" the witch gave him a confused look.

"Yeah, well… like in muggle facilities. Factories and power plants and things like that, they have consoles… and they run the machines and stuff with them -- I don't know," Harry sighed, scratching the back of his neck. "Wait until Hermione comes through - or one of the muggles with us. They might know better."

"Let's hope so," McGonagall murmured, moving pass the console. "This was not quite what we were expecting when we made this plan," she muttered to herself. "A completely different place, different world even, but something like muggle technology? No, we weren't expecting that. Nor are we prepared for that."

"It might not be muggle technology at all," Harry answered, following her. "Maybe the ancient people who once lived here, if they ever existed… maybe they were just _like_ muggles. And instead of magic they had technology?" he glanced around. "Because this to me doesn't look like anything even muggles could've built. That," he motioned at the gate, "definitely isn't muggle made."

"Either way, this is a problem," McGonagall frowned while leaning to a metallic baluster and looking down to the gateway's level. "If this entire place is filled with technology…" she trailed away darkly. "We have no idea what these… consoles do. Accidentally we might make an enormous mistake that could cost our lives."

Harry frowned. "True. But we might be able to learn to know what they do and what those mean," he motioned at a wall where odd blocky writing was glowing softly. "We have Hermione - Kingsley pretty good at muggle things too - and we have actual muggles with us too," Harry said. "We'll manage. And if not, then we just won't touch the technology bits. There got to be place here where there aren't any."

The teacher smiled at him. "I suppose it's good that at least you don't seem worried," she said before noticing something below. "You, there, get out of the ramp! You're in the way of the others coming through!" she then snapped down to the lower level.

"Minerva, most of the people are through now. They're starting to send the supplies next," Aurora Sinistra, who had just came through the blue gate, called.

"Good. You there, next to the gateway, clear out of the way, we need put the supplies down there. Not you, centaurs, you can stay where you are -- excuse me, Potter," the professor said, walking pass Harry and heading down to the lower level. "Didn't I tell you get out of the way already? Go, go stand over there, you won't be in the way there. You too. Move it!"

"This is really quite incredible," Luna's voice, coming directly from behind Harry, nearly startled him out of his skin. She was looking at a complicated crystal decoration in a corner of a wall. "This place is pretty. I rather like the idea that we will be living here from now on. What do you think, Harry?"

"I think that you should never ever do that again," Harry answered, letting out a sigh. "You nearly gave me a heart attack, Luna."

"I am sorry," the girl answered with a serene smile. "What do you think of this place, Harry?"

The wizard gave the area around them a thoughtful look. "Ask me again when I understand it a bit better," he then said. "For now I think we should be respectful and _not touch anything_. Please be sure to tell that to you father too, Luna. We don't know what we might do if we go pressing random buttons and things like that."

"I will let daddy know," the girl promised. She reached her hand and patted Harry's shoulder. "You shouldn't worry so much, Harry. You'll get wrinkles." With that said she headed away, hopefully looking for Xenophilius.

Harry shook his head. "At this point wrinkles are the least of my worries," he muttered. Not that he had actually ever worried about wrinkles.

"Harry," Ginny's voice over noise of the place. She had just came through the gate. "Come here and help me."

As Harry hurried down to the lower level, he saw that boxes and bags were being hurtled through the gate. Ginny caught most of them midair with her wand, but as she started to levitate them aside, more came through.

Pulling out his wand and starting to cast hovering charms to the items coming through, Harry glanced at the red headed witch. "This is the stuff of the Dumbledore's Army?" he asked.

"Yeah. We packed with us anything we thought we need, furniture, beddings, magical tents - we even have things like curtains and lamps and rolls of fabric so that we can make clothing, sewing supplies and things like that," Ginny said while directing the supplies into a corner across the centaurs, where they'd be out of the way. "The Room was real help for us, it gave us everything we needed and more."

"I guess Hogwarts wanted to see us off well," Harry smiled. "Though I think that Madam Malkin is coming along too with her shop. So we might not need to make clothing at all."

"There's another clothing shop coming - from Hogsmeade," Aurora Sinistra, who had been close enough to hear them, said. "Most of Hogsmeade is coming with us, actually."

"Three Broomsticks too?" someone near by asked excitably.

"Three Broomsticks too," answered the sure voice of Madam Rosmerta answered. She was near by, apparently waiting for her supplies to be sent through. "You can't establish a society without nice big mug of Butterbeer and good shot of Firewhiskey, after all!" she smiled to the people around her. "Three Broomsticks will go on, even if it will go on in another realm, mark my words!"

Harry and Ginny shared a grin and continued levitating things. Soon the things of the Dumbledore's Army were all through - it was quickly done as most of their things were packed in expanded containers - and other supplies were being sent through. While Ginny went to make sure that the containment charms and the expansion charms were holding, Harry stuck around to help the others to levitate their things out of the gate. And there was lot of things. After Rosmerta's things, which were packed in wooden boxes, were through, Harry was suddenly helping Ollivander, and then Mr. Flourish who apparently had packed entire bookstore with him.

"Won't be much of a store. Can't exactly get new books away from home," Mr. Flourish murmured to Harry before smiling. "Madam Pince and I decided that we're going to throw all the books together and make it a big library. There are so few of us here that library will work better than a bookstore."

Harry smiled. "Well, it's good that you're with us," he said. "Who knows, maybe someone around here will want to start making books…" he trailed away before leaning forward. "How many stores from Diagon Alley came along?" he asked.

"Eight," Mr. Flourish said. "There's me, then there is Madam Malkin's shop, then Ollivander, the lady of Magical Menagerie packed her things too," he threw a glance next to him where they were now transporting cages filled with life animals. "Then there is Slug and Jiggers, the potions store. The Whiz Hard Books is here too. Then there Ink and Quill, the place which sells things like parchments and quills and things like that… and finally we have the Magee Apparatus, they sell magical devices, scale models of galaxies, magical cameras and things like that."

"Oh," Harry said and smiled with wonder. Apparently they were pretty well stocked. And with most of the shops of Hogsmeade and these eight stores of Diagon Alley thrown together… they'd have bigger shopping place than either Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley. Especially if George would put the joke shop back up.

Once the shops had been gotten out of the way, they started transporting other things. Enormous boxes which were probably full of things from Hogwarts. While they were pushing through box big enough to be called a crate, Mrs. Weasley came through, levitating a thing which looked like train of chicken cages behind her.

"Oh, well… this is ah…" She looked around, almost dropping the cage. "Quite, how should I put it…"

"Yeah, I thought so too," Harry grinned, motioning the woman to move. "You should get out of the way, Mrs. Weasley, there's probably more coming through."

"Yes, of course," she nodded and walked on, the train of cages following her like a trained puppy. "This is really, really…" she murmured as she went. "Oh, Ginny, there you are!" Harry then heard her call and suspected that she took the chickens next to the DA equipment. He was too busy levitating another box out of the way to look, though. By the smell of the box, it was filled with soil for Sprout.

Eventually everything that needed to be levitated was through. The last of the boxes and bags, which Harry suspected were from the Hogwarts kitchens, came through with terrified looking house elves levitating them. Harry directed them to get out of the gate's way with gentle voice and hesitatingly they moved on, placing their burdens aside and then just staring at everything with impossibly big eyes. Kreacher was among the last elves, levitating eight boxes from the Grimmauld place. He too gave the hall around them some shocked looks before Harry managed to get him out of the gate's way.

"We're about all through now," Flitwick said while stepping through with some other order members - and Ron and Hermione who were both levitating things as they came. "It's only Kingsley, Bill, Arthur and George who are behind now."

"They're setting up the bombs," Ron said excitably. "They're going to blow up the Chamber of Secrets and the passage there. And the room with the gateway too."

"It'll probably do some damage to the school, but hopefully the gate will be destroyed," Hermione said, her eyes wide as she looked around. "This is… I didn't think it would look like this!"

"None of us did," Harry agreed, frowning at the gate. "There seems to be lot of technology here. McGonagall wants you, Kingsley and everyone else who knows anything about muggles to take look at them. So far we tried not to touch them…" his frown darkened as something dawned to him. "If they explode the place… will the explosion come through the gate?" he asked worriedly.

"Oh… oh, it might," Hermione agreed with a frown. "We need to cast shield charms… or actually, Harry, do you think you could put up one directly around the gate?" she turned to look at him. "You can manipulate your shield charms better than anyone else I know."

Harry smile briefly at the unintended flattery before thinking about it. "I haven't actually ever tried to do that. I can change a shield's shape pretty well --"

"And you can just throw it between people like you did, you know, with Voldemort and mum," Ron nodded eagerly.

"Yeah, that too. But I haven't ever tried to, you know, protect area from an object that might explode…" Harry frowned. "But I think I might be able to do it with the Elder Wand," he reluctantly admitted.

"Good thing Hermione made you get it then, isn't it?" Ron said.

"Yeah, sure," Harry murmured. He wasn't sure about that yet.

"Well, just in case, we should try shielding ourselves too," Hermione said.

Just then a silvery animal came through the blue gate. It was Kingsley Patronus. "We've set up the charges and are about to set the timing charm on them! Everyone put up shield charms and if you can't do a shield charm, take cover. The gateway might carry the explosion to the other side."

Harry pulled out the Elder Wand and stood ready. About half minute after the Patronus came through, Kingsley and the rest of the Weasleys ran through the gate. "Everyone put up shields or take cover!" Kingsley yelled even while casting a shield charm himself.

Harry however concentrated onto the gate, trying to imagine how the shield would go. It would have to cover the gate completely - from all around as he didn't know if the explosion could come out from the _backside_ of it. Waving his wand in arch, he shouted, "Protego!" hard, as if the loudness of the spell would help it work the way he wanted to.

The glowing shield which enveloped the entire gateway like a glove was without doubt the strongest shield Harry had cast. It looked almost physical, like iron hard water or rubber, as it stretched over the gate. While staring at the accomplishment he had just achieved in something akin to horror, Harry saw how the gateway flashed in blight yellow, bright enough to blind. The floor underneath them shook slightly and Harry could hear someone yell out in surprise behind him.

Then it ended as quickly as it had begun. The yellow faded, taking the blue sheen of the open gate with it, and then Harry's shield was only holding empty metal ring.

"Wow, Harry!" Ron gasped, staring at the gate. "That was amazing! I want a wand like that!"

"That was quite impressive, Harry," Kingsley nodded, giving Harry who meekly allowed the shield to disperse, a thoughtful look. "Hermione's idea?"

"Every good idea around me usually comes from her," Harry said sheepishly before frowning at the wand in his hand. Putting up the shield had been ridiculously easy considering how powerful it had been. He didn't like it one bit. Shaking his head he glanced at the Auror. "Were you in some sort of hurry to blow the Chamber?" he asked. "You gave us pretty little time to prepare."

"We didn't want to take any chances," Kingsley said, casting the Elder Wand a thoughtful look. Then turned to look around in the hall they were in. Instead of looking at the impressive building like everyone else had, however, he was looking at the people. "Well, we made it through. One piece and without trouble," he said softly, but Harry was sure everyone heard him. "And hopefully… no one can follow us here."

There was odd, relieved yet strained silence. People looked at each other with hesitatingly hopeful looks about their face but not daring to say or do anything. Then George broke the silence with loud "Wohoo! Take that, Malfoy!" and suddenly it was like the bomb had gone off there, and not at Hogwarts.

Harry couldn't help but grin as everyone started to scream and cheer in relief, happy to know that finally, finally they were out of the clutches of the war which had tormented them so badly in the last year. Ron patted Harry's back hard before wrapping his arms around enthusiastically cheerful Hermione and somewhere near by Ginny was laughing happily.

"Alright, alright, enough of that!" McGonagall's voice eventually cut through the short lived celebrations. "We aren't perfectly safe yet! We don't know what this place is or if we can get out of here!"

"Right," Kingsley agreed. "Order of Phoenix, Professors of Hogwarts and Dumbledore's Army members with me! The rest of you, stay near to the gate!"

"And _don't touch anything_!" McGonagall added.

Harry, Ron and Hermione followed the others to the upper levels where there was more space. Glancing around Harry could see that the members of Dumbledore's Army were also moving forward, leaving their families to the lower levels. Kingsley and McGonagall led them where the strange console-tables where, as it was emptiest there.

"As we don't know what this place is and how far it goes, we find out," Kingsley said once everyone was gathered around him. "I wouldn't want to include the DA," he nodded at large cluster of the students. "But there aren't enough Order Members for this judging by the looks of this place and what people have said so far. You are all better trained in use of offensive and defensive magic than most here, so…"

"We can take care of ourselves," Neville said with a frown.

"Right," Kingsley nodded. "How many of you know how to use Patronus for delivering messages?"

Most of the Order members lifted their hands but very few in the DA knew how to do it. Even Hermione didn't seem to know.

"Okay then… We will set out in groups of three. One Order member, two DA members," Kingsley said. "Look out for each other and report back to me if you see anything unusual. Try to figure out if this place has an exit. Also keep in mind a way to get back to these rooms. We don't want anyone to get lost."

"And try avoid casting any magic to the building around us. Light charms only if possible," McGonagall said. "We don't know how this place reacts to magic, and we don't want to take any risks."

The people were divided into groups, though not all joined the exploration. Some, like professor Babbling who seemed to thing the ancient writing looked similar to some ancient runes, stayed behind to study the gate room. Harry went with Hannah Abbot and Charlie Weasley, taking one corridor near by and starting to explore it. They all had Lumos pouring out of their wands, lighting the way, but it was mostly unnecessary. The ceiling lights and the corners of the pillars around them all lit up for them when they came near enough.

"It's like this place is sensing us," Hannah whispered as they walked, trying to keep everything in sight. She leaned closer to Harry with slight frown on her face. "Do you think that this place… it's like Hogwarts?"

"Magical?" Charlie asked and hummed thoughtfully. "This place looks more like technological to me. It might be that there are some devices here which sense motion or something like that - there is muggle technology like that too, after all. So this place might just be reacting to our movement."

"Or to our simple presence," Harry murmured throwing a look at a row of large flower pots. It looked like fairly large plants had once grown from them. They were all dead now though. "This place looks abandoned," he murmured.

"Yeah. If there were others here, I think the lights would be on," Charlie nodded before pointing the beam of light coming out of his wand towards a staircase near by. "Let's go down," he said and Harry and Hannah followed him down the metallic spiral staircase down to the lower level.

The structure remained pretty much the same in the lower floor - metallic with lights popping on as they walked. There were doors there left and right which opened to reveal rooms and corridors as they walked past them. There were also more pots with dead plants in them

"Who ever lived here, they didn't have much furniture, did they?" Hannah murmured.

"Might be that they brought it all with them when they left," Harry shrugged.

"And left their house plants behind?"

"I think I can see a window over there," Charlie pointed at something ahead of them. "We should be able to see what it's outside, how far up we are…"

"Seems pretty dark," Harry pointed out while following him. He got to say nothing else before they were close enough to the window to look out. Then he, and the others, was struck speechless.

They could see entire city below them, dark and silent and quite enormous - and they were definitely far up, high enough to look down upon a building which seemed to have more than hundred floors. But in the same time they seemed very, very low. With a swallow, Harry followed the rippling beams of light coming from above.

"We're under water?" Hannah whispered.

"Seems so," Charlie said and frowned. "We might still be on Earth then. We're just under some ocean…" he turned away from the window and waved his wand. A horse sized dragon appeared, bathing the hall in gentle silver glow. "Kingsley, we found a window in floor below you," Charlie spoke to the dragon Patronus. "This place isn't just a building but entire city - and we're probably in the highest tower in the city. It also looks like we're under several thousand feet of ocean. Try finding a window, you'll see it for yourself." With a wave of his wand he sent the Patronus away. It flew into the ceiling and vanished.

"This might be a big problem," Harry murmured, glancing at Charlie. "How can we grow food without sunlight? The centaurs won't like being locked up indoors forever, either. Also, what about air?"

"Who would want to build a city under water?" Hannah asked confusedly. "And this far down? There aren't even fish out there!"

"Who'd build a place like this? People who don't want to be found, I think. That or mermaids," Charlie answered, frowning at the window for a moment and then turning. "Let's continue exploring. Kingsley will figure something out."

They didn't get far before Kingsley's Patronus jumped down from the ceiling and in front of them. "It doesn't seem like there's anyone here but us. No one who has tried sensor charms has discovered anything. Harry, try _Homenum Revelio_ with the Elder Wand. You might able to sense bigger area than the rest of us."

Harry sighed and changed the holly wand into the Elder one. Hannah and Charlie both gave the wand a look of awe while Harry waved it, murmuring the spell. He was immediately flooded with the knowledge of who there was around him and how far they were. He could sense Charlie and Hanna, as well as another group not far from them, other group which was already two floors below, then another and another. He could sense each and every person in the room with the gate - soon he was aware of everyone in the tower. All three hundred and seventeen humans - eleven of them muggles, two squibs and rest witches and wizards.

Tilting his head slightly and frowning a little, Harry realised that he could sense the house elves not far from the gate. And the centaurs which had all stayed tightly together. He could sense two fairies hiding in the hair of one of the centaur foals. It started to get extremely overwhelming when he started to sense the animals too.

Then a pinprick of presence far away pulled his attention away from the life in the tower. Turning his faced towards the sensation of life, Harry concentrated. It was far away, not even near the tower they were in. However he couldn't tell if it was human or not - even if it was alive or not. It felt so faint, and somehow distorted. Like it wasn't really there at all. It could've been anything from a dying human to a rat. Or a bug.

"There is… something there. I think its living but I don't… I can't feel it clearly. Somewhere… there," Harry frowned, pointing to the direction of the life form. "In one of the other towers, I think. Really, really far, half a mile or so away. It feels… distorted somehow. Like it's not actually alive."

"Sleeping? Or in coma?" Charlie asked.

"I don't know. It's so faint I can't really tell. It might be that you just can feel things that far too clearly, even if you use something like the Elder Wand," Harry answered and opened his eyes, shaking the spell away. "This place is huge," he muttered with shudder. "Enormous and empty. We're the only things really alive around here, except for the... whatever I felt and I don't think it's moving."

Charlie turned to relay the message to Kingsley with his Patronus. Kingsley's Patronus returned not much later with short, simple message; "Everyone back to the hall with the gate."

"It seems pretty lonely. Place this big, and we're the only ones here?" Hannah murmured and shuddered. "Kind of creepy, huh?"

"Kind of," Harry agreed.

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about running out of space," Charlie said cheerfully.

When they got back to the room with the gate, most everyone was there. While sitting down to wait for the rest, Harry noted that Kingsley was pacing slightly with thoughtful look about his face. He also noticed that Hermione had in her hands a parchment which she was fiddling somewhat nervously - apparently she had made notes of something.

"Alright. We've explored little of this place but I think we have the gist of it," Kingsley said once everyone of the explore teams were back. "Firstly, this place is entire city and not just building. Secondly, we are pretty much alone here. Even Harry couldn't sense anyone but us here - and some unidentified being so far from here that we can't investigate it immediately. Thirdly, we're so far under water that it will be completely impossible to swim to the surface, even with bubble head charms."

He stopped pacing. "Elphias' team found some sort of cars which don't have tires in the levels above us," he motioned towards one of the Order members. "It's impossible to say now if we can use them, but it's logical to assume that they can probably go under water, since this place is under water," he frowned and glanced at Hermione. "What worries me now is what Fleur's team found."

"It was some sort of recording from a woman," Hermione said. "Some sort of illusion or maybe a hologram. It's basically a short message about what happened here. I wrote it down…" she lifted the parchment in her hands. "The first part of the message explains about how the people came here _to another galaxy_."

"Excuse me… Galaxy?" Bill asked softly, looking between Hermione and Fleur. "Really?"

Hermione swallowed and nodded. She looked down to the parchment. "They came here to explore and learn. Once they found that this galaxy was pretty much empty of life, they started spreading it and then, I quote, _one day our people set foot upon a dark world where a terrible enemy slept. Never before had we encountered beings with powers that rivalled our own. In our over confidence, we were unprepared and outnumbered. _She then went on to explain how they fought a war and then lost until this place was all that remained. They used the gate to go back to Earth, where they apparently once lived, and they left this city for future generations to find…"

Hermione shuddered. "While she was speaking, a model of the galaxy appeared over her. It… wasn't the Milkyway."

"We're not only in another world, but in another Merlin damned _galaxy_?!" Ron asked with disbelief.

"So it would seem," Kingsley murmured and looked around. "Well, one thing is for sure. With the gate in the other end destroyed, there is no way that the Death Eaters will ever find us… however it is also more than likely that we can never go back to Earth either."

The Auror coughed awkwardly and continued to pace. "We are all tired - some of us haven't slept properly in days. Thankfully it seems that we will be safe here… if this place is safe to be in…" he shook his head. "Since we are alone here, we can - and we probably must - make this place our new home. However until we learn more about this place, I want us all to be careful and stay together... the first issue now however is sleeping and living arrangements."

"We have several magical tents," Ginny spoke out. "The Room of Requirement supplied us with about fifty of them. They should be enough to accommodate everyone."

"Good," Kingsley nodded. "That is good. We will pitch the tents close to this room and until we've deemed it safer, we will stay close to each other," he said. "We will also need to establish some sort of guard force here - some people to patrol the halls just in case even whilst others rest… I trust all of you will be willing to work for this guard force?"

No one had any arguments to that. Kingsley nodded with satisfaction. "We will establish shifts, but before that we will need to start handing out and pitching the tents. Also, we need to figure out what to do with food. We have enough supplies to feed all of us for several months… but it needs to be handed out accordingly."

"Best way to go about that would be to set up a dining place, rather like the Great Hall of Hogwarts, where people can eat at certain times," Mrs. Weasley suggested. "With the house elves that came with us, it shouldn't be too difficult."

"Good. Once we've found a place for it, we will do that." Kingsley nodded and ran his hand over his face. "There are other things we need to figure out, but for now I want everyone to be able to rest comfortably and not starve. We will figure out the rest later. Ginny, can you and some of the DA start handing out the tents? Seven people or more per tent so that everyone will have a place to sleep."

Ginny nodded. "We'll do that."

"What about the centaurs?" Harry asked, glancing at the herd. The centaurs weren't looking too happy in the corner where they still were. "They're probably not comfortable indoors and I don't think they'd like to sleep in tents either."

"Hmm… Filius, could you see if you can turn one of the rooms around here to more comfortable for them?" Kingsley asked. "Enchant the floor into a ground or grass and make the walls look like trees or something. Keep everything as illusions, though. No transfiguration for now."

"I can do that," the petite charms teacher nodded.

"Good. The rest of you try and find places for the tents near by. We need to set up lot of them so we will need lot of space," Kingsley said and started to direct them to work. When Flitwick moved to attend to the centaurs, Harry followed him. He had persuaded the centaurs to come with them so the least he could do was to make sure they were comfortable.

"Harry Potter, this is unacceptable," Entau said the moment Harry came close enough to hear. "We cannot remain here, this place, it is… it is very uncomfortable. We wish to go outside."

"I'm sorry, but that's impossible. This entire placed is under water," Harry said. "We're trying to making everyone as comfortable as possible. Professor Flitwick here is going to turn one of the rooms here into something you can stay comfortably in for a while, but for now that's the best we can do."

"Please, ladies and gentlemen, be patient with us," Flitwick added, smiling to the centaurs. "Now, if you follow me… there was a nice large room near by which we can turn into comfortable forest for you."

"But it will be an illusion, won't it?" Ronan asked.

"Yes, for now," Harry admitted. "But we'll come up with something better once we've gotten everything under control. I promise."

They led the centaurs into rather large empty room not far from the room with the gate. After watching how Flitwick enchanted the floor to look and feel like grass and disguising the metallic ceilings to appear like woods, Harry figured that the teacher had everything in control there. He turned to leave and headed to the gate room to see if he could be any help there.

It didn't take long for the DA to hand out the tents, but setting them up was more difficult. Eight of them were pitched in the room with the gate whilst the rest were set up in corridors and in the other rooms. Eventually all the halls and corridors started to get crowded with the tents, making the whole place look weird to say at least. If they hadn't been magical, Harry would've been laughing at the idea of tents inside.

"You can stay in our tent, Harry," Mrs. Weasley said when Harry walked towards her. "The whole family is staying together. Hermione is also sleeping with us."

"That sounds good, thanks," Harry nodded to her.

"This seems like some sort of very bizarre camping trip," George muttered near by, eying the tent he had set up for the Weasley family with his mother. "Tents inside a city in another world, in another _galaxy_ even…"

"I was just thinking that," Harry grinned. "By the way, did you bring the joke shop with you?"

George grinned mirthlessly. "I brought all the products if that's what you're asking."

"Good. We will probably need some laughs around here before long."

Thanks to the months living in a tent, Harry had learned thing of two about setting them up. He helped few families whose tents were near by to the Weasley tent to set theirs up, marvelling how easy magic made it. They didn't even have to attach the tents to the floor and they still stayed up just as long as someone set them up with magic.

Once the tents were all set up, Kingsley handed out the watch schedule for the Order and DA members. Harry was more than relieved enough to see that he wouldn't be on night watch duty until the fourth night. That night few of the Order members would be patrolling the halls instead, as they had apparently gotten some sleep under their belts in the previous days.

"You should go to get some rest, Harry dear," Mrs. Weasley said. Around them other people doing the same and were checking out their new accommodations. "Before those dark circles around your eyes become permanent."

"We can continue exploring the place once everyone is in full strength of body and mind again," Mr. Weasley agreed. "I'm going to have word with Kingsley and McGonagall and then I'm going to turn in too."

Harry nodded, before following Mrs. Weasley into the tent. It was pretty Spartan from inside with only five rooms one of which was a kitchen mixed with dining room and another bathroom. The other three were bedrooms, each with two bunks. Harry selected the upper bed in one of the bunks and soon after stretching himself out, all the strength of before seemed to drain out of him, and he drifted off to slumber. When Charlie, Ron and George later on joined him in the room, he was too dead to the world to notice.

x

Harry woke up to being shaken rather violently. As he blearily blinked, trying to clear his mind off the odd dream he had had, it took him moment to realise that no one was shaking, exactly. Instead the bed underneath him - and the tent's fabric ceiling above him - was shaking.

Groaning, he reached to look to the bottom bed to see if whoever was sleeping there was shaking the bed. Ron wasn't, instead he looked just as confused as Harry felt. He too had apparently been woken up by the shaking, judging by the way he was blinking and yawning.

"What's going on?" George's voice asked from the other side of the room, sounding irritated and tired.

"Earthquake maybe?" Charlie asked, yawning in mid speech.

"Oh, that's just great. We live under water in another planet in weird city in another galaxy - and we get earthquakes too?" Ron groaned while sitting up. "Aren't there spells to stop houses and stuff from shaking during earthquakes?"

Before any of them could answer, voice boomed through the tent, obviously enhanced by Sonorus charm. "Everyone out of tents! Everyone out of tents!" it was McGonagall, though Harry was certain he could hear other people calling the same.

"Out of tents? Why?" Ron mumbled.

"Ever been inside magical tent when it falls over?" Charlie asked while standing up and taking his robe from the bed post. "It's not exactly pleasant experience."

Harry nearly fell over when he dropped to the floor, but managed to stay on his feet. Thankfully he had been too tired to pull clothing off when he had gone to sleep, so he didn't have to go through the trouble of pulling them on. Instead he waited until the others got their robes on, before they headed out together.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked as she, Ginny and Mrs. Weasley came out from another room

"Earthquake maybe," Charlie said again, glancing at Mr. Weasley as the man stepped out of another room. "Let's go and find out," he suggested. Yawning in agreement, the others followed him out.

They weren't only ones coming out. From the other tents around them stepped out tired looking witches and wizards, rubbing their eyes, yawning and looking around in confusion. "Does anyone know what's happening?" someone asked somewhere near by.

Just as Mr. Weasley started to answer, a greater jerk ran through the entire complex, sending everyone off their feet. While people cried in confusion and fear, Harry struggled to get up to his feet, taking out one of his wands just in case they'd need magic. Bits of the ceiling could start falling down on them for all he knew.

"Okay, this place is officially starting to seem like very bad holiday place!" George growled. "Just whose idea was to build a city like this in the bottom of an ocean where there is Merlin damned Earth quakes?! I want to file a complaint!"

"No, wait…" Harry frowned, leaning onto a wall. Somewhere near by a tent fell over and the city jolted again. The feeling of the shake was different now. There was some sort of weird… direction in it now. "Does anyone else feel that?"

"Feel what?" Ron asked, he too trying to get to his feet.

"We're moving!" Hermione gasped. "We're going up!"

The city shook and shuddered harder until suddenly light started pouring in from somewhere. Turning his eyes towards it, Harry almost fell over again. He wasn't the only one gasping at the sight of the water's surface receding at a fast pace, letting sunlight into the previously dark city.

Hurriedly stumbling over to the window, Harry pressed his face against it to see. The water was going down fast - no, that wasn't it. They were going up, they had arrived to the surface. Now the water was pouring down the futuristic looking buildings which gleamed and glimmered in the warm, welcoming sunlight.

"This city is… mobile?" he murmured with shock. The water sloshed over the city's base, and parted, revealing piers of some sort. The city was shaped oddly and though Harry hadn't really had any thoughts about the city's shape before, he was pretty sure he had had the impression that it was round.

Once on the surface, the city stopped jerking and moving. It set our ripples over the ocean's surface and water continued to pour down from the buildings, but apparently getting to the surface was all the city had wanted to do. Harry wasn't the only one who let out sigh of relief, nor the only one who tentatively made their way closer to the windows to look out.

Mechanical hiss near by signalled the opening of a door, alerting the attention of some. Noticing that not far from them, a door had opened to a balcony of sorts, Harry left the window and approached it hesitatingly. The balcony floor was still wet and there was water falling from above, but he didn't care as he stepped out.

"Oh my god," Ginny, who had followed him, whispered as they looked down to the city together. "This place… it's enormous."

"And it floats too," Harry muttered somewhat stupidly.

"This should make growing food a little easier," Mr. Weasley murmured, joining them on the balcony. He stopped to stare at the horizon for a moment before looking down to the city below them. "Oh, now, this is a view…"

Kingsley and McGonagall didn't seem to be as glad about being in the surface as one would've expected. When Harry and the Weasleys approached them a little later, McGonagall was running some sort of diagnostic charms on to a wall next to her and Kingsley was pacing.

"You don't seem too happy," George pointed out. "What's the matter? Shouldn't this be what we wanted?"

"It's certainly better than being in the bottom of an ocean," Ginny nodded.

"It's good that sunlight and fresh air will no longer be an issue, but we have bigger issues at hand," Kingsley said and motioned at the room around them. "The city did it by itself. Now, we don't know if that was just another of its reactions to human presence or if it has some sort of sentience of its own. Also, we have no way of knowing what it'll do next. For all we know, it could set out to the sky!"

"And this place works with something other than magic too," McGonagall sighed while lowering her wand. "My analyzing charms come up with very little information to help us. All they can say is what this place is made off and that's pretty much it. And most of the metal here seems to be completely foreign to us."

"We need to get this place, this Atlantis, under control before everything runs out of hand," Kingsley murmured, pacing up and down the room in irritation. He glanced up and at Harry. "You said you sensed some sort of life form other than us in the city, right?"

"That's right," Harry answered with a frown. "I don't know if it's a human or not, though. It could be animal too."

"Well, since it was here _before_ us, it's our only hope of getting some answers. And now that we're on the surface, getting to it shouldn't be too hard… Someone here should have brooms with them," Kingsley murmured and looked at the Weasleys. "Charlie, George. Get brooms. Harry can lead you to the life form. I want you to investigate it and if it's human, bring it here. Got it?"

"Alright, sure," George yawned. "Why not. I have my own broom with me too."

Harry glanced at Hermione who was already leaving the room, having left the beaded bag at the tent apparently. "Oliver Wood packed probably all the Hogwarts brooms with him," he said, glancing at Charlie. "If you don't have one with you, that is."

"Good. Get going. I want answers as soon as possible," Kingsley said, motioning them to leave.

"Has anyone noticed how Kingsley is ordering us around like he's the boss?" George murmured when they were heading back towards the tents to get the brooms - Charlie and George probably wanted to fully clothe themselves too. "Maybe we should crown him as the king of Atlantis. He's already acting like one.

"Well, when you think it, we were going to make him at least the temporary Minister for Magic when we still thought we had won the war," Charlie said with a casual shrug of shoulders. "So I guess right now he is sort of our unofficial Minister of Atlantis."

"With McGonagall as his very skilled and very pushy advisor," Harry agreed. "It's not that bad idea, making them officially the leaders around here. We could go lot worse and it's pretty obvious they have the best of all of us in their mind."

"Kingsley for president, awesome," George said as they arrived to the tents. "Gimme a day or so and I'll start making badges. They'll throw a curse at you if you disagree with the message. And the curse will make your balls shrink."

"What if it's a witch?" Charlie asked amusedly.

"I'll figure out something equally sinister later on."

While Charlie and George changed their clothes, Harry glanced at the room where Hermione had slept to see if she had found his broom yet. She had, and was already pulling it out of her bag. "Here you go, Harry," she said, handing the Firebolt to him. "I put some protection charms on it so that it wouldn't get banged up in the bag."

Harry nodded in thanks but still checked to see that all the twigs were in order. "Thanks Hermione," he then said and yawned. Trying to shake himself free of the sleepiness that still clung to him, he glanced at the girl. "Do you know how long we got to sleep before the city decided to give us a wake up call?"

"About eight hours," she answered, stretching her hands. "Only way to know if that's enough is to know how many hours per day this placed has. If it's really different world, they might have shorter or longer days than we do."

"I'll leave figuring that out to you," Harry chuckled, noticing that Charlie and George were soon ready to go. "Time to go."

"Be careful," she said with a smile and sat down to one of the bunks to sort through the things she had in her bag.

"I need to get a broom," Charlie said as Harry joined the two Weasleys to head out of the tent. "You said that Oliver Wood has extras, right? Do you know where he and his family are staying?"

"I think I saw them head to the floor below us yesterday with other family - there's only three of them so they were sharing a tent," Harry answered, motioning towards the staircase. Together they headed down, where more tents were lined up and people were admiring the sight of sunlight, endless ocean and the magnificent city which seemed to bask in the attention.

"Hey, Harry? Did we do this?" Dean Thomas asked as they walked past him and his bewildered looking mother. "That guy who runs things… Shacklebolt, did he have something to do with this?"

"They could've warned us before! I almost head a heart attack!" his muggle mother complained.

"No, the city did it pretty much on its own," Harry shrugged. "We're still trying to figure out why, though. We'll let you know when we know more, ok?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Oi, Oliver!" George called out at the sight of the former Quidditch Captain of Gryffindor who was leaning to a window with his mother and peering out. "You have extra brooms, right? Filched them from Hogwarts. We'd need one for Charlie here."

"Yeah, I have a few," Oliver nodded confusedly. "Why do you need them?"

"We need to investigate something and fastest way to get there would be on broom," Charlie shrugged.

"Alright. Give me a moment."

"Looks like we play Quidditch around here after all," Oliver's mother murmured, folding her hands and smiling with satisfaction at the pier of Atlantis. "We were worried that we would have to give up flying completely around here."

"You play Quidditch, Mrs. Wood?" Charlie asked politely.

"Not professionally, of course, but it's something of a family trait," she smiled. "It'd be nice if we got teams together around here eventually."

"I think that won't be too hard to do. We have lot of Quidditch players from Hogwarts teams in here," Harry mused. He rather liked the idea of being able to play Quidditch again. He had been extremely Quidditch deprived in the last year or so. It should do lot good to the other wizards and witches as well, to have that particular piece of home back again. "Most of them were bright enough to fight on our side."

"Indeed."

Soon enough Oliver returned with a spare broom, handing it to Charlie. "I want it back, though," Oliver said. "I don't think we have broom maker with us, so it's better to take care of the few brooms we have."

"We have few experts on making magical devices, one of them might know the essentials," Charlie said. "The manager of Magee Apparatus for one. I think he sold brooms in his shop too."

"Well, that's good to hear. Still, I'll kick your ass back to Hogwarts if you break it."

Charlie assured that he would be taking especial care with the broom and they headed for the nearest balcony. "Nice to see that Oliver hasn't mellowed out in the least," he chuckled as they stepped out of the building and to the balcony.

"I think his short career as professional only made him worse," George muttered while mounting his broom and setting off. Harry did the same, following him and Charlie to the sky. And if Atlantis was magnificent when seen from balcony, it was twice as impressive when looked from upon.

"Alright, Harry. Where to?" Charlie asked as they hovered upon the city.

"Give me a moment, I need to cast the spell again," Harry said and took out the Elder Wand. With a sigh he waved it, murmuring the sensor spell. This time he tried to ignore the wizards and witches in the tallest tower from the start and concentrate onto the pinprick presence which was in one of the other towers. It made the sensory overload much easier to handle.

"Alright, I got it," he said and pointed. "There."

"Lead the way," George said and Harry took the lead, swooping down among the towers and heading for the direction where he could sense the presence. Charlie and George followed him and together they manoeuvred their way through the enormous city until finally Harry found the right tower. Finding the right level - and finding a way inside - was bit harder.

"I think it's on this level, but I can't see a balcony anywhere near by," Harry said, looking around as they hovered beside one of the skyscrapers.

"Split up. There's bound to be one near by," Charlie said, and they headed to different directions. George was the one who found a way in, coming to fetch the two others before they landed to the balcony. Just like the other balconies and surfaces outside, it was still pretty much wet with ocean water, but that didn't slow them down as they dismounted and headed towards the door. With a whoosh it opened for them, slipping into the wall.

"I like the doors around here. You never have to open them yourself," George murmured with satisfaction. He grinned as lights lit up over their heads in otherwise dark corridor. "Lights too. No need to use Lumos all the time."

"Don't get complacent. One day we will encounter a dysfunctional door which won't open at all," Charlie said, looking around with his wand out. "Which way, Harry?"

Harry concentrated before casting the spell again. This time the pinprick presence was bit more tangible than last time. "We're closer. It's floor or so above us though, we need to find stairs before I even start to try and find it by feel… I think there are stairs over there," he motioned before moving to lead, the two others following closely behind.

"This placed is nicer than the middle tower," George noted, motioning at the walls. There was some sort of water decorations in the wall, bubbling prettily with greenish glow lighting them up. The lights were arranged more aesthetically too. "If we are going to spread out and, you know, inhabit the city for real, I want to live in a place like this."

"I think we've barely scratched the surface with this place. If even that," Charlie said while they started climbing up to the floor above. "There might be loads of nicer places…"

"And I think before we start spreading out we have bigger worries to handle. Like food and water and all that every day stuff," Harry murmured, frowning as he tried to follow the feeling of presence. "It's not far," he said, this time not even startling when the lights started to turn themselves on.

They continued on until Harry finally found the right room. As the lights turned on and they found that it wasn't empty like most of the rooms, Harry walked pass the consoles and some sort of table - or maybe a bed - which lay in the middle of the room. The presence was coming at the end of the room.

"Lumos," Harry murmured, directing the spell at a glass which stood imbedded in a wall. The three of them fell silent in shock as light revealed a ancient looking woman, standing inside the glass, almost as if sleep.

"Strange choice for wall decoration," George finally murmured in something akin to horror.

"Its ice," Charlie murmured, after reaching out to touch the glass. "At least it feels like ice. You sure she's still alive, Harry?"

"Yeah, though she's… she's somehow less alive than we are," Harry said, he too touching the glass. It really did feel icy. "You should be able to feel her too, now that we're this close, if you try the spell."

They did, both frowning at the feel of the old woman. "Some sort of… stasis? Or maybe she's petrified?" Charlie asked.

"I don't know, but I don't think we should mess with her," Harry said, glancing at the others. "We need to get madam Pomfrey here."

"As far as I know, she's not exactly fan of flying, you know?" George said with a frown. "Maybe we should try to take the woman out and take her to the middle tower thing where others are? We should be able to levitate her even though she's in chunk of ice…"

"No, Harry's right. We shouldn't touch her. For all we know the ice might be the only thing keeping her alive," Charlie said. "Besides, we don't need to make Pomfrey fly here."

"We don't?"

"Of course not. I can just side-along Apparate her," the dragon handler smirked. "I wouldn't have thought that _you_ of all people would forget that you can Apparate, George."

"Oh yeah, we can do that too…" the younger redhead blinked. "While stuck in Hogwarts I sort of… anyway. Getting Pomfrey?"

"Getting Pomfrey - and reporting back to Kingsley. You two stay here. And don't touch anything."

"Yes, of course, because we're so stupid that we haven't gotten that with McGonagall repeating it half million times over," George murmured and with a grin and a loud crack Charlie disappeared. George sighed morosely. "Can you believe that? Big brothers. No faith in us younger ones. No faith what so ever."

"Uhhuh," Harry murmured with amusement while still looking at the old woman. "Do you think she's one of them? You know, the people who once lived here, the people who built this place? Those… ancient people Bill was talking about?"

"Who knows? Let's just hope she has some answers."

They had to wait about ten minutes before Charlie returned with not only Madam Pomfrey, but Kingsley and McGonagall as well. "Nice Apparating," Kingsley congratulated the dragon tamer while Charlie fell to his knees with a gasp.

"Thanks. Just never ask me to do that again," Charlie answered, taking in slow breaths while Pomfrey headed straight for the woman in the ice.

"You didn't touch anything, right?" McGonagall asked from Harry and George.

"We pressed all the buttons we could find, ma'am. Some of them even _twice_," George answered with obvious irritation. "Just to see what happened. It was bit of a let down really when nothing did."

She snorted in answer before turning to look at the woman in the ice. There was brief look of wonder on her face before she glanced at Pomfrey who had already taken out her wand and was running it over the ice, murmuring spells. "Tell me once you know anything," the former headmistress of Hogwarts said to the matron.

"I can tell you right now that she is a muggle and that she is alive… but not exactly healthy. She's very old, so old that her body isn't functioning perfectly and several of her organs are quite weak," the healer said with a frown. "I think the ice has been sustaining her. Or more likely suspending her aging."

"So she could be quite old?" McGonagall asked.

"Very old. I can't even tell how long she's been like this. It could be anything from decades to hundreds, maybe even thousands of years."

"I don't care how old she is, I want to know if we can wake her and if she can answer to our questions," Kingsley said with a frown.

The matron gave the man a look of disapproval. "I think she's already in process of waking up, actually. There is something going on, I can't tell exactly what, but it feels like she's coming out of the stasis," she said. "It might be the function of this… this machine around her," Pomfrey motioned at the walls surrounding the ice. "However she's so old that waking up might kill her. As she is right now, she doesn't have much time to live."

"Don't we have anything we can give her? We did bring lot of potions with us, didn't we?" Harry asked. "And entire potions ingredients store, right? Or at least their supplies…"

Pomfrey sighed. "Well, I suppose some potions might help… and there is a potion which most aged wizards and witches can - and usually do - take, which a sort of anti-aging potion," she murmured, folding her arms. "It gives them few extra decades on top of what they can naturally have. As far I know, Dumbledore took it when he was about ninety…"

"So if we give that to this woman, she might live for years to come?" George said and then frowned at the look Pomfrey had on. "There's a catch. I can see it in your face. What's the catch?"

"Well, the potion doesn't always work, and it's meant for wizards and witches. I don't think a muggle had ever taken it," she answered with a darkening frown and looking up to Kingsley. "Taking the potion might kill her."

The Auror frowned. "You say that she's coming out of the stasis?"

"As far as I can tell, yes, she is."

"Alright. We will wait until she does. If it looks like she's not going to live for long, we go with the potion. At that point we won't have anything to lose," Kingsley said. "But use other alternatives first, ones that are less likely to kill her. The longer she lives, the better for us."

"Alright. Though there is one other thing you should know…" The healer glanced at the ice. "She is so old that she might remember nothing of her life. You need to prepare for the possibility that you won't get any answers at all."

Kingsley didn't seem happy about it but he nodded in understanding. "Alright, I'll keep that in mind. But for now I'll maintain positive attitude and hope that she will have answers to our questions."

x

Harry wasn't there when the stasis ice thing let go of the woman and Pomfrey Apparated the woman into the tent which had been turned into temporary hospital wing. At that time he was working with most of the Order of Phoenix and DA, supplying families with food and water and exploring the tower to see if there were anything they could use as toilets and bathrooms.

Thankfully it seemed that ancients had apparently had similar bowel functions because toilets were found. Eventually they even found few bathing places. Harry suspected that there was lot more of them around but the tower where they mostly were wasn't meant for day to day living, so there weren't many of them here.

"Finding actual living quarters from somewhere could be useful," Ginny chuckled after she and Harry had explained yet another family where they could go when they needed to use the toilet - since their tent didn't seem to have one.

"There should be some. This is a pretty big place and the people must've slept somewhere," Harry shrugged and glanced at the girl. "How are you doing?"

"Better now that we don't seem to be in immediate danger. I've been leading the DA mostly. With the Order, we've gotten most of the tower explored, few of us are even making maps," Ginny said before frowning. "It's going to get pretty hectic soon, though. So far everyone has been too shocked about this all to really complain, but… well."

Harry nodded. There was definitely lot to complain about this situation. However they also had lot to be grateful. Not being in war - or dead - for one, and no one had really forced anyone to come along. Also they had Neville who probably would beat all complaints to the ground. Harry smiled slightly at the idea before remembering something. "Speaking of complaining, I think I'd need to go and take look at the centaurs," he murmured. "They must be pretty unhappy, being indoors for this long."

Ginny frowned slightly but nodded. "You do that. I will be around here if you need me."

"Alright," Harry said, placed a parting kiss to her cheek, and then headed towards the room which Flitwick had charmed for the centaurs. The charms professor had done amazing job with the place. The moment the door opened for Harry, it was like he had stepped into totally another world. Where there had once been floor there was now wild moss and undergrowth. He couldn't even tell where the walls had once been, as now trees and bushes had replaced. And the ceiling had been covered with illusion similar to that of Hogwarts Great Hall.

"Wow," he murmured while pushing a tree branch aside and stepping forward. They could use more rooms like this in case they couldn't make proper green houses. "I need to learn how to make illusions, seriously…"

"Harry Potter!" Entau's voice cut through the surprisingly real sounding foresty-sounds of rustling leaves and wind. "It's about the time you came! We have been wanting to have a word with you for hours now!"

"Ah… I see. I imagine you're uncomfortable here then?" Harry asked awkwardly as he approached the centaur Herd. "Not that I can blame you…" Actually he could. The illusion forest was pretty nice. He wasn't about to say that out loud. Illusions probably weren't enough for centaurs.

"The city has breached the surface, has it not?" Ronan asked when Harry came close enough. "We could feel it moving, it woke many of us. We are no longer under water, but instead there is sky upon us, yes?"

"Yes," Harry answered.

"Then we wish to go outside," Entau said sharply. "We do not like being indoors this long. We cannot breathe here properly. We cannot see the sky, the sun, the stars!"

"I know, I know. But you really need to give me more time. We're working as fast as we can to explore this place, but it's enormous," Harry said in as calming manner as he could. "Though it looks like this city has lot of out door space - balconies and piers - we do not know how safe those are. Also, getting you there might be an issue… unless you don't mind being side-along Apparated. So far we're only found staircases here. There might be elevators but… but you don't have any idea what those are, do you?" he sighed.

There was a moment of silence. Finally Ronan sighed. "We can see you are looking after our best interests. And we appreciate that," he said.

"But we cannot stand being indoors like this, we cannot stand being locked up like this," Entau growled before pointing her finger at Harry, who couldn't help but notice how long and sharp her nails were. "I will give you one day. Before tomorrow night, you will have us taken outside. Is that understood?"

"…yes. I will see what I can do," Harry sighed, scratching the back of his neck before smiling sheepishly. "Is there something you'd need right now? Water, food?"

"Getting something to eat would be preferable," Entau nodded while settling down to illusion ground and making herself comfortable.

"I'll get you some," Harry said before stopping short. "Um… what do you eat?"

"Vegetables, berries, fruits, seeds, mushrooms," Firenze smiled briefly. "We have what you call a vegetarian diet."

"Okay. I will get you some then," Harry nodded, and made his exit. Shaking his head the moment he got back to the metal halls, he sighed. The centaurs were needier than he had expected, but then again… they had every right to be. Hopefully they wouldn't take it out on him when things wouldn't go the way they wanted.

Like they were now.

"Mrs. Weasley," he called when he saw the woman. "The centaurs need something to eat. Where are we holding the food and how exactly is it being rationed?"

"I'm the one doing the rationing at the time," the woman answered, looking a bit harassed. "Along with the house elves of course, but the poor things are so scared around here that they keep slipping back and forth between invisibility. Just tell me what you need, Harry, I'll get it for you."

"I need enough water and purely vegetarian food for twenty one centaurs," Harry answered, offering her a sympathetic smile. "And I have no idea how much they eat at one go."

"Well… we can use enlarging charms on the food, that way it should be enough for now…" the woman murmured while turning towards one nearby tent which had apparently been turned into food storage for now. "Give me a moment, I'll get it all for you."

Harry shrugged his shoulders and waited, looking around in the bustling corridor. By the looks of it, there were mostly supplies in this particular corridor, though he could also see Madam Malkin coming and going near one tent, apparently arranging her merchandise. Shaking his head slightly Harry hoped that she wasn't setting her shop into the tent.

"The money is also going to be an issue," he murmured, wondering how many if any had brought money with them and was it even useful anymore. There was no bank with them after all, and there was only three hundred of them. Well, thankfully trading and marketing weren't his issues.

"Harry!" familiar voice called and looking around, Harry saw silver otter making her way towards him. "The woman from the ice has woken up. Kingsley wants you there. They're in Pomfrey's tent. Make it quick."

"Wow, Hermione…" Harry muttered as the otter disappeared. Just how fast did the girl learn? Just the previous days she hadn't known how to use Patronus for communicating. He really needed to ask her or someone else to teach him the whole trick. Being able to send a message back would've been useful.

"Alright, dear, I think I have enough for the centaurs here," Mrs. Weasley came out, carrying a bottle and a bag. "All triple engorged."

"Actually, could you take it to centaurs for me? Kingsley wants to see me," Harry said and motioned towards the direction where the centaur room was. "They're over there. They're bit cranky so just say that I had to head away in important business and that I sent you - and for good measure ask if they need something else and if it's food, get it to them. Okay? Thanks Mrs. Weasley!"

"What? Wait, _Harry_! My hands are full as it is!" she called after him as Harry set out jogging towards the infirmary tent.

"I'll make it up for you!" he called back, and turned around corner. He almost felt bad for chucking the centaurs to the woman, but she would understand. As would the centaurs. Hopefully.

When he arrived to the tent, there were few Order of Phoenix members there, but inside there was only Kingsley, Pomfrey and Mr. Weasley. The woman they had found in the ice chamber thing was lying on a bed in middle of one of the tent's four rooms, looking around her in utter confusion.

"What's going on?" Harry asked. "And where's Hermione?" since she had sent the Patronus, he would've thought that she'd be there.

"She is helping the professors with something," Kingsley answered in low tone so that the old woman wouldn't hear them. He was looking mildly irritated. "She had some sort of epiphany and just rushed out just little after the woman woke up."

"Okay… what do you need me for?" Harry asked.

"Well, to tell you the truth, you're better at understanding muggles than I am," the Auror grimaced. "I can pretend pretty well, but some of it goes completely beyond me. The things this woman is saying… they don't make much sense to me. So I was hoping you'd talk to her and the things would make sense to you so that you can then explain them to me."

"Okay… but you know, for the past seven years I haven't been exactly receiving muggle education. I'm pretty out of date with some of it," Harry muttered. "Wouldn't it be better to get someone with actual muggle education - you know, like one of the muggles we have with us - here?"

"Yes, but there's the problem that they don't understand our side of things. Just… talk to this woman. Try explain this all to her and then… then you're going to help us ask some questions," Kingsley murmured and nodded Harry to go forward.

Taking a deep breath, and wondering just when he had become the consult of this weird camping trip to another galaxy, Harry stepped forward. Thankfully someone had gotten him a chair so that he could sit beside the woman's bed. "Hello," he said simply to the woman. "I'm getting into this pretty late so… let's just get this over with. You can understand us, right?"

"Yes," the woman answered with brief, confused smile, eying him strangely. "I wasn't expecting… Well, actually, I was expecting someone I know to wake me, or at least be there when I did… I am still on Atlantis, right?" she asked, looking around in the tent worriedly.

"Yes, you are," Harry nodded and motioned around them. "This is sort of temporary infirmary we set up," he explained. "We haven't been here long enough to actually make permanent one yet. Um… can you tell me your name?"

The old woman's eyes trailed around the tent for a moment before closing. "It's Elizabeth. Elizabeth Weir."

Harry glanced at the other wizards and one witch, all whom were keeping distance to give Harry and the woman some make belief privacy. They shared a mild frown at the very Earth-like name, before Harry turned back to look at the woman. "Are… are you one of the people who lived in this place? One of the, um, ancients?"

The woman frowned and she shook her head. "No, no I'm human. From a planet… called Earth. It's in another galaxy, though…"

Harry opened his mouth and then closed it. Human? But weren't they the first humans who had came to the place? Frowning, Harry quickly corrected himself. Who knew if they were the first ones? For all he knew there could be other gates like the one they had taken in Earth, and other people could've came to Atlantis who knew when and from where.

"When… when we found you, we got the impression that you had been in sleep for a… very long time," Harry started carefully. "Just, how long have you been in Atlantis?"

The woman smiled. "For a very long time. I would need to know the date to know for how long," she said, opening her eyes and giving him a mildly tired look. "Are you… from Pegasus galaxy?"

"No," Harry shook his head and frowned. "We're… from Earth too," he said. "My name is Harry Potter."

Elizabeth Weir halted and turned her eyes to him. She looked like she was about to say something, but instead she frowned and blinked several times. After a moment her eyes fell shut.

"Um, what just happened?" Harry asked, turning to look at Pomfrey.

"She fell asleep," the matron answered, running her wand over the old muggle woman. "Not very surprising, considering how old she is." The healer looked up. "I would prefer we allowed her to sleep. I will call you again when she wakes up. For now, I want you all out."

Smiling little at the very familiar Pomfrey-spirit, which he hadn't seen in for a year, Harry stood up and followed troubled looking Kingsley out of the tent. "What do you think?" the Auror asked while Pomfrey pulled the tent's fabric flap between the temporary infirmary and the rest of the city.

"I have no idea why you're asking me," Harry sighed, only to be given a look. "Well, for one, I think there's more to this than meets the eye. If she really is human and from Earth and had been in that stasis thing for Merlin knows how long… I don't know. I really don't know," he shook his head. "I don't think she's lying, though. I don't think she had enough energy for that."

The dark skinned man sighed, running his fingers over his scalp. "Alright then," he murmured. "I guess that was the best we could hope for now. Hopefully she will have more answers to give later on."

Harry nodded, glancing around. "Where did Hermione go?" he asked. "If she had some sort of epiphany, I want to know what it is before she bulldozes me with it."

The Auror chuckled. "I think they're in the gate room."

"Alright. I'll probably be there if you need me again," Harry said. "When did I become the spokesperson of this trip anyway?"

"The moment you started handling the centaurs? You have to admit, Harry. If some of the stories about you are even half true, you have some diplomatic skills. What with talking Goblins to help you break into Gringotts and everything… Beside it was some impressive talking you did, during that fight with Voldemort."

"Yeah right," Harry muttered while heading off.

He found Hermione from the room with the gate and by the looks of it she was doing exactly what McGonagall had told everyone not to do. But since McGonagall was right beside her, it was probably alright.

"Did you see Kingsley and the woman?" Hermione asked when Harry came close enough.

"Yes, I did. She fell asleep pretty soon after having the honour of meeting me," Harry shrugged, looking between Hermione, the console she was working on and the thing which looked like some sort of television or computer screen which was made of single sheet of crystal. "Want to tell me what's going on here, Hermione, professors?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. We figured some of this out," Hermione said, pointing between the console and the crystal screen. "Or, well, I did. Professor Babbling is helping me translate the runes. You see, when the woman woke up, she said something that got me thinking about why we rouse to the surface. She wanted to know if, and I quote, _if the failsafe worked_ and _if Atlantis had risen to the surface_. So, I got an idea from it, and when I got thinking, it made sense!"

"Um, what?" Harry asked with confusion.

"I'm not sure yet!" she answered almost cheerfully, pressing few buttons on the console and eying the screen thoughtfully. "But what I _think_ is that, well, this city was under the ocean - and I mean lot and lot of ocean. The pressure alone should've turned this place into a rubble. But it _didn't_ and by the looks of things this city had been under the ocean for a long, long time. So, there had to be something protecting it, right? Because otherwise it wouldn't have survived down there, right?"

"Right," Harry said slowly. It had been a while since he had heard Hermione talk so fast.

"So, it had something to protect it. Some sort of shield. Except this place doesn't have any magic so it had to be some sort of technological shield. And technology requires power. Now, shield protecting city of this size would require lot of power. Especially so if it had been there for a long time. And the pressure was probably strong. So there needs to be some sort of power source, and it needs to be really, really powerful. Except it has been going on for thousands of years probably, so… so it's possible that it has ran out of power."

"Okay… and that means what?"

"Well, I think the city rose to the surface is because it no longer had enough power to sustain the shield," Hermione said. "Being on the surface takes less energy than holding back the entire ocean, you know?"

"Okay, imagine that I do know that," Harry said. "What does that mean for us?"

"It means that if the power runs out completely, the city will probably fall back into the ocean, this time without shield, and we will all die."

Harry was quiet for a moment before nodding. "Okay. I think I got it."

"We're now trying to see if Ms Granger's theory is correct and if it is, is there anything we can do about it," McGonagall was kind enough to explain.

"Right. Okay. I'll just… leave you to that," Harry said, backing away slowly.

"Oh, and Harry? When the woman wakes up, ask her what exactly powers this city, okay? Thanks," Hermione said without looking up.

"Okay… right. Leaving now," the wizard murmured and took his chance to escape.

x

The next time Elizabeth Weir woke up, Pomfrey alerted Harry quickly enough and he got there before she even said a word. Kingsley or Mr. Weasley weren't there, apparently they were taking with Hermione about the power issue and all sort of other important stuff. Harry hadn't taken much part in that since he didn't know much about technology and would probably only slow them down.

"I gave her a potion to strengthen her," Pomfrey murmured when Harry arrived to the tent. "She should be more alert this time. Also, I think if we're going to try the anti-aging potion, we need to do it soon. Her internal organs are beginning to deteriorate, and soon she won't be able to ingest the potion at all…" she grimaced. "The problem is, we don't have any of that potion in stock. Slughorn can make it in a day, but we need to know _now_ if she's willing to take it or not. Otherwise it will be too late and we don't want to end up just wasting ingredients in case she doesn't want to take it."

"Okay. I'll ask her about it. Before that I think some explanations are in order. We don't want to overwhelm the poor woman," Harry mumbled back before moving towards Weir's bed and pulling the chair he had sat on before. The woman was giving him a thoughtful frown. "You fell asleep," Harry needlessly explained while sitting down.

"Yes, I know I just… I was wondering if the last thing I remember you saying was a dream or not," the woman murmured, frowning slightly before allowing the expression to fade away. "Because it sounded to me like you said you came from Earth."

Harry smiled. "It wasn't a dream," he said. "We arrived here just about a day ago through the gateway. And some ten hours after we arrived, the city rouse to the surface," he trailed away. "You said that you came from Earth too… how…?"

"Wait - what year is it?" the woman interrupted, glancing down to Harry's robes, and then at the tent. "In Earth, I mean. What's the date?"

"I think it's May fifth or sixth, in year nineteen ninety eight, Anno Domini," Harry answered.

Weir blinked her bleary eyes sharply. "Nineteen ninety eight? Really? That's six years before… unless…" she frowned, throwing another look at Harry's robes. "I might have changed the history… Did I change the history… did I?"

Harry coughed. Change history? "Six years before what? No, wait, don't answer that. How about you start from the beginning, and we'll just go up from there?" he asked. Now he was really curious to know how she had gotten there - and he needed her explanation before he could give one in return. "How did you get to Atlantis, and why were you in stasis?"

The woman thought about it before nodding. "Yes… yes alright," she said and closed her eyes. "I… came to Atlantis in June of year two thousand and four, as the leader of expedition which was supposed to learn and explore - both Atlantis itself and the entirety of the Pegasus galaxy. But… when we arrived, we got into trouble…"

Though Harry wanted to interrupt, ask her how she could be here _now_ if she was from that specific date, he didn't. Time travel was possible after all, he didn't need to be told to know it. So instead he listened how the elderly woman painted a mental picture of a group of muggle explorers who had came through the gate - _Star_gate - but who had ran into trouble. The city had been out of power and before they had even begun to settle in, the shield started to fail and water started flooding in.

She, along with two others had survived because they had gotten into air - and water - tight spaceship. So many others had died in the meanwhile. Before they had been able to figure the space ship out, however, one of the others she was inside with had accidentally activated something in the ship - and sent it ten thousand years back in time.

"That was when the ancients still inhabited this city," she murmured with a sad smile, before explaining that in the past they had been attacked and she had lost consciousness. When she had woken up, the other two had been dead and she alone survived.

"I met ancient names Janus, then. He was the one who healed me. He explained that the ship we had been in was a time machine, and he was the one who built it," Weir said. "He… taught me much about Atlantis. And in the mean while he tried to… tried to help me get back to my own time."

She continued to explain how the Atlantean council had denied her request time and time again. The Ancients had been in war, besieged by their enemy and they hadn't had the time or resources to help her. It had also been against their morals to temper with time. Soon the Ancients lost a great number of people in a battle, last of their refugees, and decided once and for all to abandon Atlantis.

"They were going back to Earth to live out their lives there, peacefully, away from the war," she explained while Harry felt unease about how similar the situations were - theirs in smaller scale perhaps, but still similar. "They had already lost the war… they offered that I could go with them to Earth, but Janus… he had another idea."

The old woman chuckled warmly. "He was like a kid, so full of energy. He came up with a way to make the power of Atlantis last a little longer. Someone just had to stay behind to make sure it did, to rotate the power between the power sources. I was the one. And just in case I failed, he also set a failsafe mechanism so that once the power levels would drop too much, the city would rise to the surface…"

Weir sighed and closed her eyes. "It was done so that… once the expedition would arrive in the future, they wouldn't drown like my expedition did. But… I guess it's a moot point now." Opening her eyes, she turned to look at Harry. "You are not my expedition, are you? I don't even know… if you are my people at all. You…" she looked down to Harry's clothes again. "You are different from the humans I know."

"Because we dress differently?" Harry asked.

She sighed and glanced around in the tent, giving a table next to her bed a look of contemplation. A potion phial and a goblet stood there. "In my Earth we were… some what advanced in terms of technology. And medicine. You…"

Harry chuckled as he finally realised what she was so worried about. She saw wizards around her, wearing clothes muggles hadn't worn for centuries. She saw potions and thought it was primitive form of medicine. She saw one thing and made conclusions for it. Of course. "So, you think you changed history by your adventure in time? Made it accidentally so that Earth is more primitive than it was for you?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend," the old woman smiled sadly.

The wizard shook his head. "Don't worry about it," he said, leaning his chin to his palm. "Now, how do I explain this…? Well, for one, I don't think our Earths, if they are even two different Earths, are all that different. We too have hospitals and syringes and televisions and computers and so forth on our Earth. I think they might be bit more advanced than in year two thousand and four, but the year is six years before… your time."

"But… if you're from… then why…?" she blinked at his clothing. "Is this some sort of disguise?"

"Ah, no. This is my day to day wear, actually," Harry chuckled and grimaced as he wondered how exactly to explain magic. "Now this part is a bit harder to explain. You see, there is another group of… people living on Earth, humans of course, but bit different from you. These other people have lived in hiding for the past hundreds of years, and have gotten bit disconnected from the development of the general population. Fashion, for one, is bit old," he motioned to himself. "In comparison to muggle pants and button up shirts and sneakers and whatever."

Weir blinked confusedly. "I don't understand," she then said. "Why would they hide? How?"

"I'm pretty bad at explaining this," Harry chuckled. "They hid because muggles - um, general population of humans I mean - persecuted them. They were different, they had odd powers that they couldn't quite explain, and people without these powers feared them, called them evil and so forth. There were trials, witch burnings, all sort of nasty stuff. So these special people decided that in order to live peacefully, there should be as little interaction between the two different… genres of humans. And, since these special humans of special powers were the extreme minority, they decided to go into hiding and let the general population of humans dominate the planet."

"Witch trials…"Weir frowned again. "You mean… you have some sorts of powers? Like psychic powers? Telepathy, telekinesis…"

"Something like that," Harry agreed. "Now, since the time of witch trials, we have been living in hiding on Earth, out of contact with the other humans for the most part. Our society grew a little stale because of that - I was raised by normal humans, so I know they are more advanced than us in some aspects. But it doesn't really matter to us, as we can manage without technology."

"Okay, though… I don't understand how you could stay secret," the elderly woman murmured. "Surely people would notice."

"We are pretty good at staying unseen. And when people do notice us, we can make them forget. It's not exactly pinnacle of morality, but it has kept us safe," Harry shrugged.

Weir nodded absently. "But if you don't use technology, how did you get here?" she then asked with confusion. "The Stargate, how did you…?"

"We found one of them in chamber underneath a castle of ours. A school actually," Harry said. "Along with a tablet with instructions on how to use it. Ancestor of sort had left it there for us to find."

"And so you just took a chance and jumped right in?"

"Well… not quite. See, we are… were in a war. Besieged in the castle ironically enough. It was either stay there and fight to death - or possibly be enslaved by our enemies - or come here. We chose to evacuate," the wizard answered with a shrug. "Just like the ancients did back in their day."

"But it takes enormous amount of power to establish a wormhole between galaxies! We needed a ZPM to do it!" Weir gasped, looking at him in astonishment.

"We needed to do nothing but get the gate on," Harry shrugged, wondering what worms had to do with it all. "It had charged itself over the years. Or something. I'm not really well versed enough about technology to understand it."

The woman shook her head in astonishment. "I would… I would like to hear more," she said. "It sounds so unbelievable."

"I know. But before that, I need to ask you two things," Harry said, leaning forward. "One is about how this city is powered, but don't answer me because I wouldn't be able to understand it at all. I'll get the more knowledgeable people here later on, you can talk to them. The second, and definitely more important question, is whether you would be willing to take potion - a drug - which might extend your life."

Harry glanced at Pomfrey who had been hovering near by listening them. The matron stepped forward. "Madam Weir," she started. "Your body is starting to fail, and if it's allowed to continue, you will die within a few days - and I'm not sure if you have even that," she said. "We have a potion which will repair some of the damage done by aging and which will rejuvenate your organs and give you some extra years…"

"You have such medicine?" Weir asked with surprise.

"We do. Though, it's meant for our people," Harry said. "We don't know how it works on muggles - on normal humans."

"Our basic physical structure is the same," Pomfrey said. "However, we have certain elements in us which normal humans do not. Because of that we don't know exactly how the potion will work on you. It might rejuvenate you so well, that you can live for another hundred years… or it might not work at all."

"If… if I take it and it doesn't work right, what kind of damage can it make in me?"

"Nothing that makes any difference at this point. Either way, you don't have long to live," Pomfrey said. "We don't have any of the potion ready at the moment. If you are willing to try it, we need to know now so that we can make it in time."

Weir frowned and thought about it. Then she closed her eyes and nodded. "I'll take the potion," she said. "At this point I don't have much to lose."

Pomfrey nodded and promptly hurried out of the room, probably in search for Slughorn.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to ask some people to join us," Harry said as Weir seemed to gather her mental stability after all she has learned. "They have some questions about this place, and I think only you can provide the answers."

"Alright. I'll help however I can," Weir promised.

"Thank you."

x

Hermione and Kingsley had lot of questions for Weir, all which she answered to the best of her ability. Harry could see that Hermione was having several epiphanies during the talk, making excited sounds at the words _wormholes_ and _time machine_ and _zero point module_ and generally acting like she could barely stay in her seat. Harry decided to keep distance to her for a while, at least until she would calm down and stop talking like the spirits of technology had possessed her.

In the mean while Slughorn and Pomfrey were in hurry, brewing the potion for Weir and trying to get it done as quickly as possible so that the woman could take it while her bodily functions still… functioned. The elderly woman didn't seem too worried about it, but she appeared to be one of those people who considered death to be another great adventure. Still, Harry checked how the potion was going and silently wished them luck. Weir seemed nice enough woman and she seemed to know Atlantis pretty well. They needed her help.

Harry stuck around for a while to keep an eye on things but thankfully it seemed like they no longer needed the help of a spokesperson. After making Weir understand that they were little "left behind" in terms of technology, things seemed to go pretty smoothly. And the way things were going, Hermione was on the right track to pass the barrier of being "left behind" and then heading towards being "far ahead". But that was Hermione, so it was understandable. In the end it was best to just let her do what she did best.

Later that day, after Harry had busied himself with sorting out some of the stuff Kreacher had brought from Grimmauld place, Kingsley called the Order and DA together to the gate room. By the time Harry arrived there, most of the people were there, chattering about what they had done and how and what they wanted to get done next. Mostly they were worried about living arrangements, the shopkeepers were worried after their shops and Sprout - along with few other herbologists and one muggle botanist - were worrying after the possible future greenhouses.

"Everyone seems to be quite busy," Luna murmured, joining Harry who was trying to keep up with the conversations going around him. She took a deep breath and sighed. "Now that we are no longer in the ocean floor, they are more eager to make this place more… homely. Sunlight helps."

"I guess it's understandable. We just need to make sure that it is safe first," Harry answered. "What have you been doing, by the way?"

"Helping around mostly. I was exploring with DA this morning, and later I stopped by the centaur den to keep them company - they don't seem very happy, by the way, something should be maybe done about that. Later I had a chat with the house elves. Did you know that no one has bonded them with Atlantis yet? They're quite bothered about it."

"I'm sure Kingsley and McGonagall will do that once they have time," Harry assured before looking up from the first level of the gate room to the second, where Kingsley had raised his hands to call for people's attention.

"Now. It seems we have all settled in a little better. Now that the city is on the surface we have less to worry about - drowning for one doesn't seem to be an issue anymore," Kingsley started, arousing few laughs in the crowd. "We don't seem to be completely out of the woods yet, though. There are still issues like the fact that this city is so foreign to us, and that we don't know how to operate it, but we are making some progress there as well."

He glanced at Hermione who was standing beside him. She nodded and stepped forward to speak. "As we probably have all figured out by now, this city is mostly technological. This means that it doesn't only operate completely different way than we are familiar with, but it also needs supply of energy to do it," she started. "At the moment, that energy is almost depleted. And since that energy is the only thing that keeps the lights burning and the city on the surface, not to mention about the dozens of other functions which are vital around here, we do not want that energy to run out.

"Thankfully, we have figured out something that will help us on short run," Hermione continued to speak. "Taking example from the Stargate -" here she motioned at the gate behind Harry "- we have come up with a… power generator which will draw its energy from magic and then transfer it to the city. It won't be enough for defensive purposes, like giving the city proper protective barriers, but it will keep things running. And us on the surface of the ocean."

Kingsley nodded. "However that device is still in the drawing table and before it will be put into action, we will have to minimise power usage. Because of that we are suspending further exploration in the city until further notice," he said. "Also, we will need people stay in this tower and go no further so that they will not activate more systems and make the city use more power."

Harry almost groaned. The centaurs weren't going to like the sound of that, not in the slightest.

"Thankfully, we've begun to understand how these systems work, partially at least," McGonagall threw a look at Hermione here, making it very obvious who had figured it out. "Also it seems that the language used by the ancients has some similarities to earliest forms of ancient runes. Professor Babbling," she motioned at her former co-worker, "is working hard to come up with proper translations, but its slow process. So if you know anyone here with experience in ancient runes… the help would be provided."

"Now, does anyone have any questions?" Kingsley asked.

There were lot. Pomfrey wanted someone to find her better place to set up hospital wing in, Sprout wanted to get started on the green houses, several people wanted better living quarters and so forth and so forth. Many also asked if it would be actually necessary to understand the systems of Atlantis. They hadn't had any use of technology before, so why now?

"Well, as it is right now, it doesn't look like we can manage in Atlantis without understanding her," Kingsley shrugged. "And we can't exactly leave either. The policy of not touching anything will work only so far."

"Though it still stands," McGonagall growled, making many people chuckle.

"Any other questions?"

"Yeah, I have one," one of the Order of Phoenix members, Hestia Jones, said while lifting her hand. "Are we going to be setting up any sort of governing body."

"Kingsley Shacklebolt for president!" George called out before anyone could answer, making people around him laugh and cheer, Harry laughing among them.

"Actually, we are considering setting up a council, which would hopefully deal with all aspects of our… life. The shop keepers will have councillor, the centaurs will have one… and so forth," Kingsley answered. "But for now…"

"But for now Kingsley Shacklebolt will be the temporary leader," McGonagall said and smiled. "He's been doing pretty well so far, hasn't he?"

There was polite cheering while the Auror obviously pretended to act coy just for everyone's amusement. Harry grinned in the back of the crowd. It was good that they were finally getting into something akin to light spirits. With little laughter, the situation was definitely starting to look up.

Now he just needed to come up with a way of telling the centaurs that they wouldn't be getting outside yet. Harry sighed morosely. That wouldn't be an exactly a fun talk. Maybe they would like hanging around balconies? He tried to for a moment imagine it, before hanging his head in defeat. Yeah, probably not.

Well, at least he didn't have to tell them right away, he could wait until tomorrow.

x

I don't know how frequently I'm going to update this. The chapters take a while to write and I'm bound to run into a writer's block somewhere along the way, I always do. For now I'm trying to keep this story short so that I can actually finish it at some point, so it will be under twenty chapters long. I think before the end, this story is bound to dissapoint many. It won't be centred around battles or huge interstellar conflicts, though of course there will be some, it wouldn't be SGA without them. Also this story won't it be centred around any romances either, though there will be a few in the sidelines. Mostly this story is just about life in Atlantis. Don't expect perfection, because I'm not aiming for it. I'm just having fun and I hope you have some too.

My apologies for possible grammar errors and such. Feel free to point them out so that I can fix them.


	3. III, Continued survival

**III chapter**

"Well, we haven't really figured everything about the whole thing out yet, but I think we can make it work," Hermione was saying the second morning in Atlantis while they were sitting at the crude dining table in the Weasley tent, eating breakfast. "Doctor Weir was lot of help, explaining the power systems of Atlantis."

"Doctor Weir?" Mrs. Weasley asked confusedly.

"The woman we found in the stasis chamber," Harry explained.

"She gave up the essentials on how Atlantis draws power," Hermione nodded eagerly. "See, it usually uses Atlantean power source called ZPM. It draws its energy in sort of artificially created sub-dimension - bit hard to explain, but the power extracted from it seems to be somewhat similar to magic. And since the Stargate we used to come here managed to charge itself with magic easily enough… it's not that much of a stretch to use magic power Atlantis."

"Are we really going to call the thing Stargate now?" George asked. "Why _Star_gate?"

"Because, well… it was build to enable people to travel between stars - or between worlds orbiting stars… haven't you heard?" Hermione asked confusedly. "There's an entire network of them in this galaxy. Our galaxy too. Hundreds if not thousands of gates in equally as many worlds. All you need to do is to insert the right seven digit address and one gate will connect to another."

Harry hadn't really heard about that either, but he wasn't particularly shocked for some reason. It was pretty believable actually. Why would anyone built a gate that complicated just between two worlds in two different galaxies after all? Well it did make sense if there were only two liveable planets in two different galaxies, but… multiple planets made much more sense. "It's like Floo network," he mused while reaching for the water pitcher.

"Actually they are very, very similar," Hermione nodded eagerly. "I can do a comparison later if you'd like. Anyway, I was explaining the power source we came up with. We got the idea from the gate, the way it charged itself with magic. We're even using the same element from which the gate is made of - Atlantis is full of it, so it won't be too hard to extract it from some baluster or whatever which isn't all that vital. When it's actually made, the device will work sort of like… well, converter, translator if you will. You fire a spell at it, it will convert the spell into purest form of magic and then hand the energy over to Atlantis, which will then use it to power up her systems."

"So, this power source device… it won't work on its own?" Bill asked. "It won't be like… turn it on, leave it there, and everything works?"

"No, it'll be spell powered. We don't have enough ambient magic here to make it power itself, that's why it needs to be charged every now and then - probably several times a day," Hermione said. "We don't know how many times yet, though, as we don't know how much magic Atlantis would need for proper functioning. It shouldn't be too much, though."

"How long do you think it will take from you to make this device?" Charlie asked curiously.

"Few days probably. We're already making models with master Magee from Magee Apparatus and professor Flitwick, and of course professor Vector is working with us too, and we've gotten pretty good results using the metal of this place - it's really magic friendly, we're even thinking of taking some to Ollivander to see if he could make wands out of it," Hermione said excitedly. "If he could make wands out of it, they might be better and more powerful than the wooden ones we use."

"I'd rather stick to my own than take some metal wand, I think," Mrs. Weasley murmured with disapproval.

"Also, we don't exactly have anything to use as wand cores here - unless Ollivander brought some with him. No unicorns, no Phoenixes, no Dragons," Charlie shrugged.

"Ah, yes… there's that," Hermione murmured before shaking the thought out of her head. "Well it might be that the wands made from this metal won't even need cores. It's really… powerful alloy. Probably just making a handle of a wand from this stuff would give it a power boost."

"Do we actually _need_ more powerful wands?" Harry asked flatly. He had the most powerful wand in existence and he didn't even like the idea that it _existed_.

"Well… they could be handy," Ron mused.

"Uhhuh."

"Well, I think I need to head off," Hermione said, hurriedly finishing her toast. "I need to get back to work. The sooner we get the device done, the better, after all. Once we know we have more power, we can explore more as well." She nodded determinately to herself, drinking her remaining water in one gulp before heading off.

"Well, I suppose it's good that someone around here is enjoying themselves - and learning," Ron mused with amusement while looking after her. He glanced around the tent. "Have there been any other huge revelations lately? And has anyone else gone half mental about this place like Hermione has?" he said it almost fondly.

"No, Hermione pretty much covered it," Mr. Weasley laughed while standing up. "But we've only been here for so long. There's still plenty of time to get shocked out of our boots."

Soon everyone was making leave. While Harry finished his food, Mrs. Weasley more or less forced Ron to promise to help her with sorting out their supplies that day. Harry managed to escape the whole thing by saying that he needed to see the centaurs that day and he wanted to check on Elizabeth Weir and see how the anti-aging potion was coming along.

When he was making leave, Ginny held him back for a moment. "Harry, wait a moment. There's something I want to talk about."

"Alright. What's up?" Harry asked, eying her curiously. "Is something wrong?"

"Well… depends on how you put it. I just want you to tell Kingsley, if you see him you, that some people are getting bit anxious. The Order and the DA are both having their hands full around here, but there are lot of people here just sitting around doing nothing but thinking dark thoughts," she said worriedly. "Lot of people have lost loved ones just recently and they haven't gotten the chance to mourn… it's bottling up inside them, making them irrational."

"What do you think we should be doing about it?" Harry asked with a worried frown.

"Well, if we were home, I'd say that someone should sent lot of people here to see mind healers," she said. "But I don't know if we have any of those here. It might be that Pomfrey is the only healer we have and she… she's just a school matron."

Harry sighed and nodded. "I'll talk about it with Kingsley. He might know if we have any professionals with us," he said, thought he already doubted it. He had never even heard that there were such things as magical counsellors. Muggle ones yes, muggles had whole slew of them, but magical ones… not so much.

"Thanks. I'll make list of the people I think need some… help with their issues," Ginny said. "Just in case we find someone qualified with these things."

Harry nodded. "Good idea," he agreed. "Though, how many here do you think are in need of help?"

"Well… most of them," she said with a sad smile. "This is pretty shocking situation for all of us - and considering what we came from… Though lot of people here just need someone to talk to, someone they can trust. Some are solving these issues inside their families, but then there are lot who don't have families with them…" She shrugged helplessly.

"Ah. Of course," the wizard murmured. That made sense, in horribly sad way. "I'll be sure to let Kingsley know," he promised. As he headed off he was already wondering if there were alternatives to actual mind healers and counsellors. They probably have any of those around after all. "Well, we should have lot of books with us," he murmured to himself, remembering that entirety of Hogwarts library was packed away somewhere. "Maybe we have few on mental health."

When he got to the infirmary tent, Weir was awake, talking with Pomfrey about the anti-aging potion. Harry hovered at the door while they finished their talk. Apparently the potion would be ready in hour or so - and Slughorn would be making new record on how fast it can be made. Pomfrey wanted Weir to take few potions which would help her and strengthen her innards so that she could probably ingest the anti-aging potion safely later on.

"You didn't tell me yesterday that your people are called wizards and witches," Weir said somewhat amusedly to Harry after she had drank the potion and Pomfrey had headed off to work with Slughorn.

"Yes, well… I didn't want you to think I was insane. Muggles some times have problems believing in these sorts of things," Harry said while sitting down and trying not to think about the Dursleys. "How are you feeling, Doctor Weir?"

"Better in some ways, worse in others," she answered, closing her eyes before attempting to pull herself to sitting position. With Harry's careful help, she managed to sit up and rest her back against the pillows he piled behind her. "I think I will be somewhat relieved once I take the potion. Whether it'll work or not, I'll stop being so uncertain."

Harry smiled and nodded. "I guess that is better than nothing," he mused, wondering what it could feel like in her situation.

"Still, this is pretty amazing. From what I see, you people don't have chemistry and medicine as I know it. Yet… you have potions that might lengthen person's life by hundred years…" Weir shook her head in amazement. "Human medicine - or would it be muggle medicine - has nothing like that."

"Well. We have more potent plants which we use in our medicine. Plants which we are more or less hiding from the rest of the world," Harry mused. "Animals too, though we couldn't exactly bring all of those along with us."

She nodded thoughtfully and then looked at him curiously. "Can you do magic?" she asked eagerly, looking like much, much younger woman for a moment. "I've seen Madam Pomfrey's wand when she was running diagnostics on me, at least I think that was what she was doing…"

Harry chuckled and pulled out his holly wand. "Yeah, I can do magic," he said. "I'm not as well trained as Pomfrey and some others, though. I haven't even properly finished school actually… but I can do this," he said, waving the wand and conjuring a bright yellow flower, which he then handed to her. "Basic conjuration."

"Incredible," she murmured, taking the flower and staring at it with wonder. "What… what else can you do?"

"Well, there are different fields of magic like transfiguration, charms…" Harry started to explain, giving the woman the basics of magical studies he had taken in Hogwarts. "Of course there are other fields, but some aren't taught in Hogwarts like mental magic, alchemy, wandlore… and so forth. They're more specialised fields of magic that require years of study to master. Others, like divination, you can study your whole life but never learn if you don't have the talent for it."

"This is really amazing. Oh, now I'm hoping that the potion will work. There's so much to learn about your people," Weir murmured excitedly and Harry felt almost sorry for making her so curious. "So, Madam Pomfrey is obviously a healer… what about that Hermione Granger girl I talked to yesterday? Or that man, Shacklebolt? What about you?"

"Hermione is… well, she isn't officially anything yet, but I think she can become whatever she want if she puts her mind to it," Harry shrugged. "Kingsley is an Auror, a dark wizard catcher. Sort of like magical police. He's our temporary leader here until we get proper government running. And I… well. I'm not yet anything, though I'm working as sort of spokesperson between us wizards and centaurs."

"_Centaurs_? Really?" Weir asked with astonishment.

"Yeah. Twenty one of them decided to come with us from forest near the castle where we were besieged. I was sort of the one who persuaded them to come with us, so I've also been the one looking after their interests," the young wizard answered with a sheepish smile. "They aren't too happy here, though. Don't like being inside, you see. They want to go outside."

"Well, if we're on the surface, why not take them to the pier?" Elizabeth asked. "I think the transporters are big enough to fit a… centaur inside them."

"Wait… transporter?" Harry asked.

"Yes," she answered. "You haven't discovered them yet? Every building in the city has a transporter in it which works both as elevator and way to move between buildings. On foot it would take too long, after all…"

She explained the transporter system and where Harry should be able to find one. Harry listened closely, already knowing that he should probably take the information to Kingsley as soon as possible. Weir seemed to understand because she smiled at his agitated look. "Go on," she said. "Tell your people before they make the mistake of thinking one of them a closet."

"Yeah, I probably should do that," Harry nodded. "I'll be back before it's time for you to take the potion, though, okay?"

"Alright," she smiled brightly. "I won't be going anywhere in the meanwhile."

The wizard threw a smile at her before heading out of the tent. Asking people about the man, he soon found that Kingsley was in the gate room. When he arrived there, Hermione was explaining something to Kingsley, motioning at one of the crystal screens in the upper level of the gate room.

"…can't do much yet, obviously, as I still have lot to learn about this place," Hermione was saying. "But one should be able to shut down systems so that they don't use more power. Things we don't need around here, sections where we are probably never going to go… things like that."

"Alright. How's the power device coming along?" Kingsley asked.

"It's… coming along. Slowly. Professors Flitwick and Vector and master Magee are still working on it," Hermione said. "We're pretty positive that its going to work, though. It will just take some time to actually make it work. And make it, in general."

"Keep at it," Kingsley nodded before noticing Harry. "Yes, Harry? Is there something I can do for you?"

"Do you know about the transporters yet?" Harry asked, and when both Kingsley and Hermione gave him a confused look, he continued. "Doctor Weir just told me that each building in Atlantis has a transporter which works both as elevator and sort of… Floo network between buildings," he said, motioning tot the direction where Weir had said the closest transporter to the gate room was. "I thought that I'd let you know before someone gets into accident with one of those and gets stranded somewhere in the city."

"Show me," Kingsley said decisively, and quickly Harry led both him and Hermione from the gate room and to where he thought the transporter was. At first he thought there was nothing there, but when a wall split open before him to reveal a small room, he figured he had found it.

Carefully the three of them stepped inside. As Harry approached the back wall of the small room, the wall opened to show a map of the entire city. After taking in the snow-flake like shape, Harry glanced at the others.

"So, there's one of these in all sections of the city? I guess these indicate them, then?" Hermione pointed at one of the dots. After moment of hesitation, she pressed it, making flash of white light run over them. They all glanced around them when the light vanished. It didn't seem like they had moved at all.

"Maybe it doesn't work?" Kingsley asked.

"Or maybe they are all identical," Harry said and stepped towards the door. It opened before him, revealing dark empty corridor. "I think it worked," he said needlessly.

"Alright. That's good to know. Especially later on when we will really start exploring this place. Now, how do we get back?" Kingsley asked.

"And more importantly, how much power did we just use?" Hermione murmured, turning to look at the screen again. She pointed at the centre of the map. "I think this is the tower where we were before. The tower seems to be in the centre of Atlantis."

"Using the transporter should use less power than we would if we ran through the entire city, activating systems left and right without meaning to. Let's try it," Kingsley said and quickly Harry stepped back so that doors closed. Hermione pressed the dot in the central tower of Atlantis, and again white light seemed to envelope them.

"This is incredible," Hermione murmured. "I really need to figure out how this technology works. It's like floo, but… much faster. And better. And doesn't require single magical component."

"Let's just worry about power for now," Kingsley chuckled as they stepped out of the transporter, once more near to the gate room. "This is a good thing to know, Harry," the man said. "If Doctor Weir has other insights to the city which might be useful, please let me know."

"Will do. She will be taking the anti-aging potion soon, though," Harry answered with a mild frown. "So she might be soon able to help us herself… or she won't be around at all."

"Let's hope we get lucky," Kingsley sighed. "We'd need her expertise."

Harry nodded in agreement. "There was another thing I needed to talk to you about," he then said, remembering what Ginny had told him after breakfast. "It's about the people," he added before explaining what Ginny had explained to him. "Do we have any sort of counsellor with us?" he asked once he was done. "Because I think it'd be whole lot safer to deal with these problems before they come any bigger."

Kingsley sighed heavily. "I don't think so," he admitted worriedly. "Magical counsellors are pretty rare. Wizards, they don't have much use for anything that has something to do with psychology. They think that psychology can interfere with their magic. Best we have are mind healers but those are even rarer… and they usually just deal with damage done to the mind and emotions, like accidental memory magic damage and such…"

"Wizards don't have psychologists and psychiatrists?" Hermione asked with shock before blinking sharply and thinking about it. "That… actually explains a lot."

"I suppose it does," Kingsley agreed with little humour before looking at Harry. "Talk about it with Pomfrey. She has been dealing with ill students for years, she should know something about these sorts of things."

Harry nodded. "Okay," he said. "I better head back. I want to be there when Weir takes the potion."

"Alright. Let us know how it goes."

Weir seemed to notice that Harry was troubled the moment he re-entered the tent, because she immediately asked about it. "It's nothing," Harry assured while sitting down again. It wasn't her problem and she had bigger things to worry about. And though the whole mental issue thing was, well, an issue, it wasn't exactly pressing on.

"Thanks for letting us know about the portals. They should come in handy later on," the wizard offered the muggle a smile. "If you have any other insights…"

"Better say them now, while I'm still alive?" Weir asked and chuckled softly. She raised her knobbly hands and eyed them for a moment. "I had a note with me," she then said. "What happened to it?"

"Ah, note? I don't know. It should still be --" Harry trailed away glancing around until he noticed a piece of paper sitting in the floor beside the table. Getting up from the chair, Harry crouched to the floor and picked it up. "Is it this one?" he asked while unfolding it. It seemed to have constellation symbols in it, five groups of seven constellations. "It was probably on the table but fell…"

The woman accepted the piece of paper from him and smiled. "This is it," she nodded and held the paper so that Harry could see it. "I wrote these down in case I wouldn't survive the stasis. These are gate addresses, to worlds inside Pegasus galaxy. Ten thousand years ago the ancients had outposts on these worlds. Each one of them had a power source which can be used to power Atlantis."

She handed the note back to him and sighed. "If your people cannot overcome the power shortage, you should travel to these worlds and look for them. I already told Miss Granger what they look like, and how to use them… so she should know what to look for."

Harry nodded, pushing the note to his pocket. "I'll let them know if you don't… but I'm sure you will," he smiled. "And then you can tell them yourself."

Weir smiled tiredly. "I'm not worried. Atlantis seems to be, maybe not very well informed, but well intending hands," she said. "And if Miss Granger is as smart as she seems to be, I think you will be all right."

"Still, we need someone to teach her, and we don't understand enough of any of this to even keep up with her," Harry laughed and then glanced up as he heard the tent flaps being pulled aside. It was Pomfrey who stepped aside to hold the flap open for Slughorn, who came in carrying a steaming goblet.

"Is that it?" Harry asked.

"Indeed it is. Iuvenilis Inducement. Very, very difficult potion, my boy, very difficult," Slughorn said while walking forward and placing the goblet to the table beside Weir's bed. "It took me ten years to learn how to make this potion, and since then I have made it for forty one people, including our late Headmaster Dumbledore. You, Doctor Weir, are forty second one for whom I've made this potion."

"I guess you have experience in making it then," Weir mused with nod, eying the goblet curiously. "How… how does it work? What is in it?"

"Many ingredients worth their weight four times over in gold," Slughorn said. "For a wizard it works by rejuvenating all their inner organs, muscles, bones, circulatory systems… everything. Nothing shows on the out side, but inside, everything is made young again. Take it at age of ninety and you will live ninety more years…"

"But wizards have slightly different physiology than I do," Weir murmured.

"That true," Slughorn nodded solemnly. "I am rather certain that there is nothing in the potion that will harm you, but… there is a chance it will not work."

"I have gotten used to those odds," the elderly woman let out slightly breathy laugh, still eying the goblet. "Should I take it immediately, or… or what?"

"You should take when it's still warm," Pomfrey nodded. "Mr. Potter could you move aside for a moment…?" Harry nodded and stood up, stepping aside so that Pomfrey could sit down. Taking the goblet from the table, she held it up for Weir. "You should drink it, every drop of it. Here, let me help you…"

Folding his hands, Harry watched how the matron helped the aged time traveller drink the potion. He shared Weir's grimace out of sympathy. Potion that powerful probably didn't taste good. Once the potion had all been drank, Pomfrey quickly set the goblet down before taking Weir's wrinkled hand to her own and seeking out her pulse point.

"Now what?" Weir asked. "Will I fall into a magical coma or something?"

"No. If the potion will start working, you will feel powerful surges of warmth inside you and then you will… most likely feel uncomfortable," Pomfrey explained "The rejuvenation of tissues does not hurt, but you will be able to still feel it. It is said to feel rather like your organs are moving inside you… It should take few minutes, but no longer."

"I can feel the warmth of the potion," Weir murmured. "What will it feel like, if it doesn't work?"

"It will feel like nothing. You will ingest the potion as if it was merely food, and that is it," Pomfrey murmured and frowned. "Your pulse is growing rabid."

"I feel hot," the elderly woman answered, shifting slightly where she sat. Her fingers curled into fists and she grimaced. "Oh, I felt that. I definitely felt that. What was that?"

Pomfrey took out her and started running it over the woman. "That, Doctor Weir, was your stomach," she answered and glanced at the others. "The potion is working."

Harry sighed with relief and smiled. Weir seemed relieved as well, but the look was swept aside by a grimace and slight convulsion. And then another. "I-is that supposed to happen?" Harry asked worriedly, taking a step forward. "You said that it wouldn't hurt her."

"It wouldn't hurt a wizard. She is a muggle," Pomfrey said, standing up and quickly easing Weir back to laying position. "Hold her legs," she ordered at Harry, who quickly moved to do ask asked. "Professor Slughorn, her shoulders, please," Pomfrey added, and the potions master quickly moved forward to hold Weir's shoulders down to the mattress. Pomfrey herself was quickly running her wand up and down the length of the muggle's body as the woman continued to shake and convulse harder and harder.

"Madam Pomfrey, is there anything you can do to help her?" Slughorn asked urgently. "I did not intend my potion to cause this!"

"Any spell I could use at this point would interfere with the potion, possibly making this worse. We need to wait for the potion to run its course," the matron said.

Just then Weir convulsed harder than before, so hard that Slughorn wasn't able to hold her down and Harry nearly was kicked. Then the old woman fell back to the bed, no longer moving at all. There was a moment of surprised silence, before Pomfrey started to run her wand quickly over Weir, murmuring spells.

"Madam Pomfrey?" Harry asked anxiously.

"Give me a moment, Mr. Potter," She answered, pointing her wand here and there for a moment, probably aiming at some specific internal organ, and then sighing. "She's still alive. She's merely unconscious. And by what I can tell, the potion is still running in her system, repairing the damage caused by age."

"She will wake up, right?" Harry asked while carefully releasing the old muggle woman's ankles.

The matron hesitated and then sighed grimly. "She might," was all she could offer.

x

"I guess we need to do without help then," Kingsley murmured later when Harry explained what happened. The Auror was looking down to the note Harry had delivered to him, the one with the gate addresses. "At least we have this, in case Hermione's project fails…"

"Elizabeth Weir isn't dead yet," Harry frowned slightly. "She's just unconscious. And she might still wake up."

"But Madam Pomfrey isn't certain that she will," Kingsley answered before smiling at Harry. "I wish her to get better just as much as you do, Harry, trust me. Doctor Weir could probably teach us many things. But we must prepare for the possibility that she simply can't."

"Yeah, you're right," Harry murmured, shaking his head. "After she fell unconscious, I talked about counselling with Madam Pomfrey," he changed subject. "She says that though she's been working in Hogwarts for a while, she never really did any counselling. She left solving the mental problems of students to the heads of their houses. So she doesn't actually have much experience there, though she knows some of the field."

Kingsley frowned. "Well, you have to admit, she never did have exactly stellar bedside manners," he murmured. "Even when I was there she was rather… strict."

Harry quirked a brief smile before frowning. "I'm not really sure if the heads of houses are all that good at counselling either," he then said. McGonagall had always looked after the interests of her house - in quite strict way occasionally - but in the end she had never really… well, unless someone was in mortal danger, Harry had never felt the urge to run to her with his problems, nor had he trusted her with them. But then, he hadn't really trusted anyone but Dumbledore, and he didn't quite where that had gotten him.

Looking back to it, he didn't actually like how Hogwarts had treated him mentally. When he tried to step into the shoes of outsider and look at how he had became - and for some reason that was pretty easy now days - he might've even said that Hogwarts had screwed him up a little.

"You might be right about that too," Kingsley murmured. "Flitwick, bless him, is bit too excitable for people to be able to come to him with their problems. McGonagall, being as she is… Sprout might be, but she will be too busy trying to make sure we have food on our table to deal with people's problems…"

"You know, I was thinking. We brought all the books from Hogwarts with us, and from Flourish and Blots, not to mention about the private libraries some might've brought with them," Harry started. "If there is someone fitting to the slot of being counsellor… maybe they can read some stuff about it…"

Kingsley frowned. "That isn't a bad idea, but there is one problem. Two actually, now that I think about it. One, finding such a person might not be easy. Like said, wizards aren't too willing to open up about their personal problems most of the time - unless they have tendency of gossiping. And two, even if someone like that is found… it might very well that they have no interest for it."

Harry shared his grimace for a moment. The more he thought about this whole thing, the less he liked. There was only little over three hundred of them, plus twenty one centaurs. If someone was to go mental and start, for example, take it out on other people… it wasn't a nice thought. Also there were lot of kids from Hogwarts there, most of which had witnessed horrible things in the last year or so. Those things were bound to start haunting them…

"I'll look around and see if there is anyone fitting around here," he said determinately. They didn't need magic wielding mental cases running around, not in such delicate place and in such delicate situation. Though looking after people's mental health was only an issue if they were going to live long enough for it to be a problem. Glancing up to the Auror, Harry frowned worriedly. "How are we doing?" he asked. "I mean… all of us. In terms of possibility of, you know, continued survival and all… how are we doing?"

"Well… pretty well actually," Kingsley said. "Thanks to Professor Flitwick who engorged all the food supplies and Mrs. Weasley who has been rationing it, we should be good for another four months at least. Also, this city is able to provide us all the clean water we need, so that should bring out chances of survival up somewhat."

"I'd kind of like to live longer than four months," Harry said tentatively. "And I think most here agree."

"And you will, probably," the Auror laughed, shaking his head. "Professor Sprout has been bothering me incessantly about getting the green houses or something similar up and running. She says that if we can find enough space with enough sunlight and water, she can get vegetable and fruit gardens up in few days - and they will be able to produce food in few weeks or so. She doesn't even need soil because she apparently packed everything from dirt to fertilizers to seeds… and so on."

The dark skinned man turned to look out of the window and down to the piers below. "We don't seem to be in shortage of space either. If necessary we can set up the green houses right there," he motioned at the open space on the pier which seemed to be nothing but smooth metal. "Also Hermione seems to believe that no city this big could go on without a park or few - and the ancients had to get their food from somewhere too - so we're hoping that there is actual place in this city meant for growing plants and such."

Harry nodded with relief. "So all we need now is power to run the city," he said, nodding.

"Pretty much. Hermione and the professors along with master Magee all seem to think that they will be able to provide that power for us, so I'm not too worried about that. And if not, well, now we have back up plan," Kingsley said, lifting the note with the gate addresses. "After we are sure that this beautiful heap of metal won't sink underneath our feet, we can explore it and really start making ourselves home here."

The younger wizard nodded. He had known pretty much all of it, but it sounded somehow more secure to actually hear it all spoken aloud. "What about the centaurs?" he asked. "They are getting pretty anxious. They want to go outside and I, uh… kind of promised to take them out. Today."

Kingsley sighed. "Ah, the centaurs…" he murmured. He turned to look at the window again. "Once we can, if we can, start growing plants, we can probably make a proper habitat for them, maybe even let one corner of it grow wildly and turn into a forest for them. But of course right now… right now that is not possible…" he folded his hands and frowned in thought. "Well, I suppose there is no reason why they couldn't be taken to the piers. It's not exactly forest, but it's outside."

"I think that would be enough. It's not exactly forest they want. They just want to see the sky and the stars," Harry said. "I think they feel little helpless when they can't use their abilities."

"They might have some troubles with their divination skills here," the Auror chuckled. "It's a complete foreign sky upon us."

"Well, the sooner they can see it, the sooner they can start learning how to read it, I suppose," Harry murmured and glanced at the man. "So, I can take them outside then?" He'd need to broom down there to be able to Apparate between the pier and the tower, but that wouldn't be a problem. He had missed flying anyway - dragons notwithstanding.

"Yeah, you can do it," the Auror said with a nod. "Just try not to activate any systems there if you encounter some."

"I won't. Thanks, Kingsley."

x

"Oh, god, you gotta help me Harry," Ron almost pleaded, grabbing hold of Harry who had been walking pass him. "I need to get away from mum! She's driving me insane!"

"Um…" Harry eyed his best friend with confusion. He would've thought that after growing raised by Molly Weasley, Ron wouldn't have that many problems working with her. "Alright," he said then. "Exactly how is she driving you insane?"

"It's the food! She's had me working ever since morning with the food! Rationing it, measuring it, handing it out, making all these lists about who have how much food and when can they pick more, and when they should pick more," Ron made sound of desperation. "She's making these packs, like day's worth of food for one family of two, of one family of three, of four, of five…"

"That doesn't sound that bad," Harry said carefully. "And doesn't she have majority of the elves helping you?"

"The elves aren't any help! They're so terrified of this place that they pop out at slightest noise! You don't even know how many times I've had to pick up who knows what after they popped in middle of doing something! And the people - there is people coming to the stores all the time, asking for this and for that, for sugar, for salt, for spices, for eggs, for Merlin damned water _even though everyone should know that you can get water all over this place_!"

"Okay, okay, calm down," Harry laughed. "I can see you've been stretched a bit thin," he said, trying to come up with a way of helping that didn't include possibly enraged Molly Weasley. "Kreacher!" he then called, and was immediately awarded with a pop. "Kreacher, what have you been doing in the last two days?"

"Protecting the precious belongings from the Black Mansion, master, and repairing what has been broken," the elf said. "Is master displeased with Kreacher's efforts?

"No, no, not at all. I'm sure it's very important to protect the stuff. For now there's something else I want you to do, though," Harry said. "Take the boxes from the Grimmauld Place to the tents where I and the Weasleys sleep, alright? They should be okay there. After that, go help Mrs. Weasley with whatever she's doing."

"She has other elves helping her, master."

"I know. But they are so scared of Atlantis that they aren't doing their job properly," the wizard answered. He patted Ron's back awkwardly when his friend let out a sound which sounded terrifyingly like sob of relief. "So go help Mrs. Weasley. And try calm down the other elves if you can."

Kreacher nodded thoughtfully. "They might be more comfortable in here, master, if they would be bonded to the metal contraption. It's the freedom that is making them uncomfortable, master," he said.

Harry frowned. "Hmm… yeah. I'll mention it to Kingsley when I see him," he said. "Now, please, go help Mrs. Weasley, Kreacher," he then said in dismissal. "Do what she asks."

"Yes, master," the elf drawled and popped away.

"He's pretty… solid in comparison to the other elves," Ron mused with mild surprise. "The others are scared of their own shadows. Why isn't Kreacher?"

"Because he is bonded," Harry shrugged before realising something. The Grimmauld Place was back in Earth, and yet Kreacher seemed to be perfectly fine. Why wasn't he…? Harry sighed. "Oh dear Merlin. I bet Kreacher packed the entire Grimmauld Place with him," he murmured morosely. "No wonder he's been guarding those boxes so tightly."

"Entire Grimmauld Place? You sure?" Ron asked. "Didn't he only bring half dozen boxes?"

"Eight boxes, all which he probably has expanded magically from inside. And who knows how elf magic works. He probably put the floors into one box, walls into other and roof into the third…" Harry groaned before shaking his head. He didn't even want to think about it right then. "Well, Ron, I have freed you from food duties. Or at least given you a substitute. Now what?"

"Well, I could go with you? Maybe? If mum sees me she's gonna make me pack food again," the redhead said it as if it was a death sentence. "Do you know how hard it is? Especially since she's gotten this whole rationing thing to her head and won't let me have any?!"

Harry laughed. That explained it. "You can come with me if you want, but don't blame me if you get bored. I'm taking the centaurs out."

"Out, I want to go out. Yeah, outside, that will be brilliant. And interesting," Ron nodded eagerly. "Outside we go! Exactly where are we going in outside?"

"I was going to get my Firebolt and fly to the pier, so that I can Apparate back and forth and then Apparate the centaurs there," Harry said and then smiled. "And since you're here, you can side-along Apparate some of the centaurs."

"Flying, that sounds awesome," Ron nodded almost fervently, nodding again. "Let's go. Right now. And let's avoid the storage tents. I don't want mum to see me sneaking off."

"Okay," Harry laughed. "Let's walk the long way through the corridors where most of the people are staying. I want take a look at how things are going there," he said, and they turned to take a corridor in their left. "How do you think people are doing?" he asked from his friend. "You've been handing out food to people… how do they seem? Irritated, anxious, fearful?"

"Mostly just nervous. Lot of people here want to hoard food because they know it's going to run out eventually and they think that getting lot now will make sure that they can manage the longest," Ron answered with a frown. "We haven't allowed anyone to get more than others, though. So far we've only allowed people to have enough food for two days, but mum doesn't like that system. She wants to set up dining areas where people can simply eat instead of taking food supplies and making food for themselves. The dining hall system apparently would make rationing and saving the food easier."

Harry nodded in understanding. "Has anyone looked like they'd be about to cause some problems?"

"Well, there are some irritated people, but mostly they keep it to themselves. They know people have better things to do than deal with their problems right now," Ron shrugged his shoulders. "Worst I saw was father of one Ravenclaw, I think the guy was a muggle… he started ranting at me about the food rationing at one point. Thankfully Gabrielle was just there and managed to calm the guy down."

"Fleur's sister?" Harry asked, getting mental image of scrawny little girl whom he had pulled out of the Hogwarts Black Lake.

"Yeah," the redhead nodded and grinned. "You wouldn't be able to tell by the looks of them but witches with Veela blood? Mad strong. I think Gabrielle left bruises on the guy when she was steering him away. Also, the whole Veela charm thing helped a lot, the guy was too dazed to continue raving after she came along and started handling the guy."

Harry blinked with amazement. When Bill had said that the part Veelas could help out with keeping order, he hadn't really taken it seriously. Well, sure, no hot blooded male would get into a fight when there was a Veela around, they'd be too busy staring at her…

For a moment Harry wondered if any of the part Veelas would be fitting for the slot of being the counsellor. They had the charm and ability of making some people pretty docile… He quickly scratched the possibility. They might be able to counsel women, but men? They'd be piling at their doorways and probably just get more mental problems out of it.

"Well, it's good that there are some keeping peace around here," he murmured.

"The Fleur's relatives are taking the whole peacekeeping thing pretty seriously, actually. They're even patrolling the living areas," Ron nodded proudly. "Also what I've heard from Ginny in passing, some of the DA are also patrolling around there too, just to make sure that there aren't any problems. Mostly they help the people there out, but if there's problem… well, they're all pretty good at disarming and stunning people."

They shared a knowing, proud smile, before looking up. They had arrived to a large corridor. The last time Harry had seen it had been empty and they had only started setting the tents there. Now it was teeming with life, at least dozen or so tents standing in row with people bustling about it. The people had obviously spread out their tents because there were tables outside with people sitting at them talking. They had also spread things like cloths and tapestries to the walls to make the place seem more homely.

"Well, this doesn't seem too bad," Harry murmured, glancing how two little girls chased each other across the corridor and how two witches talked over some pieces of cloth, apparently thinking of making a trade. The people sitting at the tables were apparently drinking tea and chatting

"There's the Bell family - Katie's sisters and parents," Ron motioned at nearby tent. He grinned. "She has _lot_ of little sisters. The Bells are like the Weasleys except with witches… They're pretty nice, didn't argue against rationing at all when they came to fetch their share this morning… oh, and there the Finnigans, Seamus's family. His dad is pretty cool."

Ron knew where everyone was and how they were doing pretty well, Harry mused as they continued walking. Some of the people greeted them, saying hellos and lifting hands in waves. They talked to some of them and Harry asked how they were doing, if they needed anything, and so forth. He couldn't do much, but it was probably let people know that they were looking after their well being.

"How are you doing, Mrs. Creevey, Mr. Creevey?" he asked when they encountered Dennis's family. They were sharing a tent with a half-blood family and by the looks of it they weren't as scared as they had been back in Hogwarts.

"We're still a bit shell shocked, but we're doing better," Mr. Creevey said. He patted his camera, which was hung around his neck, with a grin. "I've been photo journal about everything that happens around here."

"You have photography equipment with you?" Harry asked curiously.

"Yeah. It was bit of trouble getting all the things with me so that I can develop the photographs myself, but Dennis thinks we can do it magically too. He learned how to from Colin…" the man trailed away before smiling again. It seemed a little forced now, though. "The people here have been pretty understanding about us, so we've… we've been doing well."

"Well, that's good to hear. If there anything you need…" Harry trailed away.

"I'll keep it in mind. Thank you, Potter."

"Harry is fine," the wizard assured with a smile before he and Ron moved on. Noticing another family - and by the looks of it, the mother was a muggle - Harry headed towards them.

"Do you want to talk to _everyone_ around here?" Ron asked with disbelief. "I thought we were going outside. And taking the centaurs."

"We are. But we're not in hurry and I want to talk to at least some of these people," Harry said determinately. Showing that people cared about others around here might prevent some of the anxiousness problems and whatever other problems that might come up later on. And maybe encourage people to ask for help when problems did occur. "You can go ahead if you want to, and get our brooms."

"Hmm… yeah. Yeah, I'll do that. I'll meet you in the balcony in the next hall," Ron said, giving him an odd look. Harry shook his head at it, and went to introduce himself to the Milton family.

By the time he met up with Ron again, the redhead was looking thoroughly bored. "You talked to everyone there, didn't you? What was that about?" Ron asked while handing the Firebolt to Harry.

"Just doing some damage control," Harry mused. While talking to the refugees, he hadn't missed the fact that great number of them were mourning. If they hadn't lost someone in the battle at Hogwarts, they had lost people in the previous year. And though few had had the chance to bury their loved ones, most hadn't gotten the opportunity.

"I wonder if it would be possible to hold some sort of wake…" he trailed away whole mounting the broom.

"For whom?" Ron asked. "Fred? Remus, Tonks?"

"For everyone," Harry shrugged. They had had to bury the dead in Hogwarts ground - and though no one was saying it, they all knew that those graves would no doubt be defiled by the Death Eaters. But though there had been burials, the ceremonies had been mournfully brief. That wasn't helping the mentality here at all. "People need to mourn."

"I think we have better things to do right now than worry about the dead. You know, like staying alive," Ron said, and kicked off. Harry sighed and followed him to the air before taking the lead and swooping down towards the nearest pier.

The pier wasn't probably what the centaurs wanted. There was only metal there, and lots of it. While inspecting the area curiously, Harry conceded that Kingsley's idea of starting gardens there could probably work. There was enough space and it didn't seem to have any purpose, really. They would have to plant soil enough to grow something on top of the metal and then make sure that it didn't fall into the ocean, but aside from that… it seemed pretty good place. The only problem they might have was the strong wind.

There was also some sort of lower area which was around the buildings - the edges of the piers were few meters higher than the lower floor. Flying around the bases of the skyscrapers, Harry noticed that there were paths going around the buildings, obvious roads. There were even stairs from those roads to the upper pier.

"I think this area is supposed to have stuff growing in it," Harry said as they dropped to the lower floor beside one raised road. It wasn't as windy there as it had been in the upper pier, so it was probably better for plants too. "This at least looks like there should be soil here. And why there would be things like that," he motioned at the road beside them, "if there wasn't something around it that wasn't fitting for walking?"

"This place could be meant for water too, though, it's weird that there's none here. I mean, we rouse from the bottom of this ocean - and this place looks almost like, I dunno, plate with raised edges. But there isn't any water here," Ron murmured, looking around as well.

"Could be that there is a drain system somewhere," Harry mused.

"Well, if nothing else, this place seems secure enough to bring the centaurs safely here," Ron mused.

"Yeah," Harry agreed. He gave the area around them a last look before turning to his best mate. "I'm going to Apparate back and take the broom back to our tent before going to the centaurs." The centaurs probably wanted to see the night sky more than anything, but they probably wouldn't argue against going out little before that.

"I'll be right behind you," Ron nodded, and together they Dispparated back to the central tower of Atlantis.

When Harry Apparated to the mouth of the tent he shared with the Weasleys and Hermione, Ginny was there having bite to eat with Mr. Weasley and Charlie. "Well, you two look winded," she noted, glancing at Harry's hair which was most probably even messier than usually.

"We flew down to the pier," Harry explained, running his through his hair in faint hope to make it settle down. "I'm taking the centaurs there later. It was pretty windy there"

"Is that food?" Ron asked eagerly. "Is - is there enough for us?"

"There should be," Charlie said while getting up and starting to arrange plates for the two of them.

"I thought you were helping your mother in the food storage," Mr. Weasley said pointedly at Ron who left his broom at the door way and hurriedly sat down.

"Kreacher took over for me," Ron answered with mild blush of embarrassment, but wouldn't say more to that. "Oh, yeah, food, finally! I've been starving for hours now…"

"I don't think working in food storage agrees with him," Harry said to Ginny in stage whisper before taking his broom quickly to his room. He then sat down, not quite as hungry as Ron seemed to be but rather peckish nonetheless.

"Did Kingsley approve taking the centaurs outside?" Mr. Weasley asked while Harry reached for his knife and fork.

"Yeah, he did," Harry answered. "I don't know if the centaurs will want to stay in the piers though. They're pretty… barren. Even illusion forest might be better for them than no forest at all," he mused.

"You talked to Kingsley?" Ginny asked, raising her eyebrows and obviously wanting to know if Harry had delivered her message.

"I did," Harry nodded. "And I delivered your message for you. According to Kingsley we don't have a professional here to take care of problems like that, but we're trying to come up with something."

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked and Harry and Ginny explained the problem to him. He snorted. "It's their problem, let them deal with it. Besides we have bigger issues at hand, you know? Like keeping Atlantis from sinking, and us from starving… You know."

"None of that will be a problem if someone with some serious issues will decide that best way of taking care of those issues would be getting into a fight and firing some offensive spells at people, things, delicate ancient equipment which might blow up and kill us all…" Harry trailed away, lifting a single eyebrow. "You know."

"Ah," Ron murmured as realisation dawned. "I see your point."

"Thank you," Harry nodded, sharing amused grin with Ginny.

"What about Madam Pomfrey? Doesn't she know how deal with those sorts of problems?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"Best she could do was handing out calming draughts that would probably do more damage than help - and it would drain our limited potions supply," Harry shrugged. "It would be… probably better to come up with a solution that won't use up our few resources."

"Ah, yes, of course."

"You wouldn't happen to know anyone who would fit that part?" Harry asked, glancing at the Weasleys around him. "They don't even have to have training or expertise. Just… some one who would fit the position."

They thought about it for a moment before frowning. "I don't know. I knew some dragonologist who were pretty good dealing with animals and people, but none of them are here," Charlie murmured.

"I could do it, I'm somewhat good about dealing with the DA at least, but…" Ginny frowned. "I don't know. I don't think I'm really cut out for it."

"She needs help herself," Ron nodded sagely. "Temper issues." His opinion was awarded with a rather hard punch to the shoulder from his little sister. "Ouch, Ginny! You just proved my point!"

Harry smiled at the two of them before glancing at the others. "Well, if you happen to notice someone who might fit…" he shrugged. "Let me know. Or let Kingsley know."

"So, what have you guys been doing?" Ron asked, looking at his family members.

Mr. Weasley had tried to offer a hand to Hermione's project, but had been useless and had after that had been helping out here and there with anyone who needed help. Ginny had been working with the DA with pretty much the same thing, though they had also been reigning people in. Lot of them wanted to look around despite Kingsley's orders to stay put. Charlie on other hand had been lending a hand with people and their animals, mostly helping the owner of Magical Menagerie with Hagrid.

"Seems like everyone has been busy," Harry mused.

"There's lot of work to be done. Besides, if you stop doing something you start… thinking," Ginny shrugged.

"And speaking of work… I should probably get back to it," Charlie said, standing up

"I'm done with dinner too. I should probably go around and ask the muggles with us how they're doing," Mr. Weasley said thoughtfully, looking rather excited about the idea. "I might be able to understand them bit better than other wizards around here."

Harry grinned after him before finishing his meal as well. "You still want to come with me to the centaurs, Ron? I don't think I can Apparate them all by myself, so I'd appreciate the help."

"Yeah, sure, just give me a moment," the redhead said and quickly finished his food, before standing up. "Okay, I'm good to go."

"Have fun," Ginny smiled at them while starting to gather the plates left by others into a pile.

"Yeah, centaurs, much fun," Ron murmured while heading after Harry who was already leaving. "Lots of confusing babble about stars. It's gonna be _thrilling_."

"You don't _have_ to come with me," Harry answered. "You can go do something else, you know."

"And forfeit perfectly good reason not to go back to helping mum? Are you mental?"

Behind them in the tent, Ginny laughed.

x

"… so you see, the only way to take you down there is by Apparation," Harry finished explaining the plan to the centaur herd, all whom were watching him and Ron intently and with troubled expressions. "You might fit into the transporters, but we don't know how to get to the pier even by using those - and we'd prefer not to use them right now because they use energy."

"… a centaur has never experienced human Apparation," Ronan finally said, sharing worried frowns with his herd. "No human has ever wanted to transport one of our kind that way and no centaur has ever wanted to be transported that way."

"So? First time for everything, right?" Ron shrugged his shoulders with somewhat cheerful smile. "It's piece of cake."

"Do you know how your art of Apparation works, wizard?" Entau asked sharply. "You travel by using another dimension, the same dimension from which magic itself comes from and in which future splits. We centaurs have _never_ directly contacted this dimension, just like we do not _use_ magic."

"You're worried that Apparation might affect your foreseeing abilities," Harry realised.

"It is doubtful. Our abilities are a skill we must learn and master. It is not like human ability to See," Firenze frowned. "However… it is something of a taboo among our kind."

There was a silence. Ron looked like he was about to say something but Harry stopped him with a quick frown. Then he turned to address the centaurs again. "If you're not comfortable with it, I will of course try to come up with an alternative," he said. "But it might take a bit longer."

The centaurs exchanged looks. "We would wish to discuss this for a moment," Ronan then said. "If you'd be willing to wait for a moment…"

Harry nodded and watched how the centaurs headed off to the other end of their illusion forest to discuss it. Ron beside him sighed. "Needy people, aren't they? What's wrong with Apparation?"

"You know, it might be the same thing to ask you to get to the bottom of this tower by jumping down without wand or a broom," Harry said with a shrug. He could actually relate to the centaurs. He didn't particularly like Apparation either. It felt like the life was being squeezed out of him most of the time.

"I suppose. Still, I don't know if I could handle catering to their wishes," Ron murmured. "I mean… first you had to persuade them to come. Then you had to guide them all the way here. You had to arrange this for them," he looked around them in the illusion forest. "Mom said you even deal with their food and stuff. And now this?"

"It's not that big of a deal, Ron," Harry laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "I like the centaurs."

"I suppose you'd have to, to be willing to do all this," Ron murmured.

The centaurs conversed amongst themselves for about ten minutes before Entau approached Harry. "I will Apparate with you to the pier," she said. "I will take look at the stars when they will come out and then you will Apparate me back."

Harry nodded. "If that is what you want," he said.

"Does this mean you don't need my help?" Ron whispered to him.

Harry sighed. "I guess it does, Ron," he said patiently. "I'm sure you can find another way to avoid being put into food duty. Try finding Luna or something, she should be able to keep you busy for a while." When Ron gave him a slightly guilty look and opened his mouth to apologise, Harry smiled. "It's okay. You probably would've gotten bored anyway."

Ron gave him a thoughtful look before patting his back, wishing him luck and heading off. Entau and Harry looked after him. "Your friend is rather insensitive," the elderly centaur then said.

"I suppose he is, a little. It's kind of weird, because I'm pretty sure that he has some measure of talent with divination," Harry murmured. "Sometimes he makes pretty good guesses…" shaking his head he turned to the centaur. "Ready to go?" he asked and offered his hand.

"Yes," Entau clasped his arm, and Harry Apparated them both to the pier. It was no different from any other time Harry had side-along Apparated someone, the squeeze and the twist were just as uncomfortable as ever. And once it was over, gust of wind blew at them, smelling like sea and salt water.

"So that is what it feels like," the centaur murmured, her fingers digging into Harry's arm painfully for a moment before she let go. "I had always wondered. It's quite uncomfortable, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I don't really like it either - I prefer flying to Apparation," Harry admitted, glancing around. "It looks like we have still hours to go before night."

"That is alright. We centaurs are patient people, I can wait," Entau said, her eye moving over the endless ocean before them before slowly turning to the cloudless sky. Then she turned her eyes to Atlantis. "This place is… quite bit bigger than I assumed. We had the impression it was about the size of Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts is _tiny_ in comparison to this place," Harry shrugged while crouching down and sitting to the smooth metal of the pier. He smiled up to the centaur. "There's so much space in here that we're bound to find a place for you," he said, before motioning towards the inner side of the pier, and lower level there. "I think that area might be for growing stuff. Just add soil, seeds… and whatever else you need. If it works, there should be more than enough space for a small forest."

Entau nodded thoughtfully before she too slowly settled down, laying on her lower belly on the pier. "I admit that we are not comfortable here right now. We have always lived in forests with true life around us and sky upon us. But we will adjust to this place if we must," she nodded determinately before smiling. "The foals already wish to see more of this place. They are very curious."

"Curiosity is good," Harry nodded.

"Yes. Indeed it is," the elderly centaur nodded before eying him thoughtfully. "What about you, Harry Potter? How are you finding this city?"

"Both fascinating and little scary, but I'm pretty sure that we can live here comfortably," Harry said and smiled. "We need to adjust too, though. All this technology around us… well, wizards aren't too good with it. But we're learning. And we have to too, if we wish to live here." he trailed away before glancing at the centaur. "Also, you can call me just Harry."

"Very well, Harry," Entau nodded.

They sat in silence for a while, enjoying the ocean breeze and eying Atlantis. Harry wondered what it would look like if there was a park or forest at the foot of the skyscrapers, would it fit there at all, would it manage. In the centre of Atlantis it probably wouldn't. Too many buildings there, not enough light. They would probably have the floor production closer to the edges of the pier - more light there…

"You do not need to remain here with me in wait for the darker hours, Harry," Entau said after long silence. "I'm sure you have many duties to attend to. You can come and get me later on."

"Maybe, but I think they can do without me for a while," Harry said. He didn't actually _have_ any duties. He had concerns, but they were mostly about things which required time and patience. Like concern over Elizabeth Weir and the whole mental health issue. "And I think I could use a break. I haven't been able to just sit down and do nothing in…" he thought about it. Whilst on the run, there had been periods of quiet, but they had been strained and worried and generally even more stressful than the action he had been part of. "Yeah. I don't actually remember."

Entau eyed him thoughtfully before smiling. "I could use the company," she then said. Harry answered her smile with a grin and together they waited for the stars to come.

x

Harry was woken in the next morning by overly enthusiastic Hermione. "Harry, Harry, wake up! I need your help with something!" she said excitably while shaking him. "Everyone else is already awake!"

"G'way Hermione," Harry groaned, trying to bury his head underneath his pillow. "I've barely gotten any sleep at all…"

"That's your own fault for staying up so late. Now come on, I need your help. Come _on_ Harry!" she said while mercilessly pulling the pillow and then Harry's blanket as well away. "Invention waits for no man, you know! And early dragon catches the unicorn!"

"Catches the unicorn? That's horrible," Harry muttered, rubbing his eyes. "And I'm not an inventor. Oh Merlin it must've been already almost morning by the time I got to sleep…" he groaned. Entau had wanted to stay outside for long enough to see the evening and the morning stars, and to memorise at least some of them and their positions so that she could teach it all later on to the herd. It had both been educational and torturous experience and by the time she had finally relented, Harry had been dead on his feet.

"Come on. You can have a nap or something later on, but I need your help _now_," Hermione insisted until Harry finally rolled out of the bed and reached for his glasses.

"Right now I hate you more than I ever hated Voldemort, Hermione. I really, really do," he groaned as he missed the glasses and accidentally send them to the floor. Laughing way too cheerfully, Hermione took the glasses and slipped them to Harry's face before taking his robes and doing the same. She almost managed to get Harry's shoes on before he shooed her away and finished dressing himself.

After Harry had gotten a very quick bite to eat, Hermione dragged him out of the otherwise empty tent and to the corridors. In between yawns, Harry greeted everyone they encountered until Hermione brought him into room where she, the professors and who knew who else had been - and still were apparently - working on their energy project. There Hermione steered Harry into a chair and sat him down.

"I see you got him, Miss Granger," amused voice noted out while Harry tried to smother another huge yawn.

"I got him, though it definitely wasn't easy. He went stargazing with a centaur yesterday," Hermione made it sound like the silliest thing in the world.

"He is in the room, thank you," Harry said irritably and looked around. The room was rather messy. There were several wooden tables there, most of the covered with what looked like metal debris from explosion of some sort, and what looked like table decorations gone horribly, horribly wrong. Aside from Harry and Hermione, Flitwick and Vector were there, as well man Harry had never met before. He was probably master Magee.

Harry shook his head and looked up at Hermione. "What is he doing here, by the way? I mean me, what am I doing here?"

"You are going to help us," Hermione said brightly, before moving to get something. After a moment she banged one of the table-decoration looking items before him. "This is the Spellstone."

"The what?" Harry asked, reaching his finger out and poking it. The device had a ball of what looked like misshapen metal in the middle of it, and few thin metal rings around it. "I think I've seen something like this before… yeah, Dudley had a toy like this. Kinetic something or other. Broke it hour after he got it."

"Kinetic orbital. That's where we actually got the idea from," Hermione said, leaning her elbows to the table and smiling at the rather crude contraption with pride. "This is what we will be using to power Atlantis."

"Okay," Harry nodded slowly. He had thought that whatever Hermione was building would be more like… a battery or something. "How does it work?"

"You fire a spell at it," Hermione shrugged, taking one of the device's metal rings between her fingers and swinging it back and forth gently. "These will capture the spell and break it into its most basic magic. Then the energy of the spell is stored here," she poked the misshapen ball in the centre. "From where the device sends the power to where-ever we wish."

"Okay. That's pretty simple. Or not," Harry said. "It's rather small, don't you think?" he then asked. The thing was barely eight inches high.

"Well, this is just a model, Mr. Potter. The final device will be quite bit larger," master Magee said, stepping forward with a wide smile in his face. "This is really remarkable invention, and Miss Granger almost made it all by herself - we were here mostly just to make it possible."

"No, not really," Hermione shook her head. "I had lot of stupid ideas about how it would work. Master Magee and Professor Flitwick and Vector did most of the work," she motioned at the teacher.

"Okay, congratulations for inventing this…. this… wonderful invention," Harry said and looked up to Hermione pleadingly. "Can I go back to bed now?"

She laughed. "No, no, we need your help," she said. "You see, we need to see how much magic the device can safely store. However though we spend most of the morning firing spells at it, we didn't even came close to making it, ah, full," she grinned sheepishly. "So you see why we need you."

"You need me to use the Elder Wand," Harry sighed. Figuring that the sooner he got it over with the sooner he could go back to sleep, he reached for his pocket where all three of his wands - his own holly wand, Draco Malfoy's Hawthorn wand and finally the Elder Wand - were, and pulled out the most famous one of them. "What spell do I have to use?"

"Well, so far we've noticed that all spells that have an _effect_ work," Filius Fitwick said. "Everything from simplest levitation to most complex human transfiguration all work, the device will capture and store them all. Of course, each spell gives the device different amount of power so, say, Wingardium Leviosa will not supply the device even nearly as much power as mid level transfiguration charm."

"Offensive magic has so far proved out to be most powerful," Septima Vector added.

"So, offensive spells?" Harry asked, standing up and moving few steps back. He couldn't cast offensive charms sitting down after all.

"Start with something small, a jinx maybe. We'll go up from there," Hermione said.

Harry held up the wand and waited for a moment. Then he sighed and looked at the two wizards and one witch who were all leaning in eagerly to see what would happen. "Professors, master, you might want to move aside. You know if I miss the device or the device simply won't capture the spell, it'll hit one of you three."

Flushing slightly, the three hurriedly moved to watch from the side, rather than from the direct line of fire. Rolling his eyes, Harry took a deep breath before lashing the wand out, and casting the spell silently.

Even before the yellow jet hit Spellstone the rings around the misshapen centre started to spin wildly, making the device wobble a little. Harry watched with fascination how the spell was more or less torn to pieces by the rings which started to spin even faster. As they spun, the yellow spell was spread out between them like mist, and the longer the rings spun, the brighter the spell got until it turned perfectly white. Then, without any warning, spell was suddenly sucked into the centre of the device like dust into a vacuum cleaner.

"Impressive, isn't it?" master Magee asked with pride, and patted Hermione's shoulder. "This girl will go _far_, you mark my words."

"This thing… it works with all sorts of magic?" Harry asked, staring at the still moving object while the others nodded. The rings were now slowly spinning around the central ball of metal, but since the others didn't react to it, it was apparently supposed to continue moving. "How can you tell how much magic there is in it? Or when it's full?"

"The rings will continue spinning as long as there is magic inside it. Also, the centre will start emit light with how much energy there is in it. The brighter it glows, the more energy there is in it," Hermione explained. "We only managed to make it emit faint grey light."

"And it works on all magic…" Harry murmured as a thought came to him.

"Well, we haven't tried all magic on it, obviously, but we made it so that it should, theoretically, be able to dissolve any form of magic from healing charm to offensive magic, into magic's most basic, purest form," master Magee nodded.

"Okay… okay then," Harry said and looked at the others. All of the two wizards and two witches seemed to be more interested about the energy aspect of the whole thing to realise the implications of device that could break apart all spells and turn them into pure magic. "Now, just theoretically… what would happen if you fired curses at this thing?" he asked slowly, motioning at the device. "Say, for example, the three Unforgivable curses?"

The others stared at him blankly for a moment before Hermione gasped. "Oh my god, you think that… the Spellstone could take the Unforgivables without breaking? Did we just create something that could be used as defence for Unforgivable?"

"I don't know, it's your device. It was just a thought," Harry shrugged before looking at the thing. He could also see another use for the device - spell practice. He would've loved to have a device like this back when he had been teaching DA - a device which could tell the strength of a spell.

"It is possible that the curses could break the Spellstone," Filius murmured thoughtfully. "The Unforgivable curses are very powerful and usually when they encounter inanimate objects, those objects tend to be damaged, sometimes less and sometimes more depending on the power behind the spell…" he glanced at Harry and at the Elder Wand in his fingers.

"Do you want me to try?" Harry asked and was awarded by horrified looks. He shrugged his shoulders without bothering to defend himself. "It's not that I'm exactly proud about it, but I can cast two of the three, Imperius and Cruciatus," he said and he didn't need to tell them that he also had cast them successfully for the four others to get the implications. They had been in war, the people who _hadn't_ used Unforgivables were pretty rare even among the light wizards.

"Well… that would be the only way to know for sure," Magee murmured, looking at the others. "Also, they are quite powerful curses… theoretically they might charge the Spellstone the quickest."

"And wouldn't that be ironic, using the darkest spells wizard kind invented to power up this magnificent city," Filius mused with small, nervous laughter.

"It might break the Spellstone," Vector said, frowning at Harry. "Especially since he has that wand."

"We prepared for it, we already made three copies," Flitwick shrugged his shoulders. "I say we do it. If for no other reason, then just to know how the Spellstone will react."

Reluctantly the others agreed to it, turning their eyes to Harry who nodded as well before taking a deep breath. Then, aiming his wand very carefully at the device, he incanted a spell silently in his head. The Imperius curse had invisible spell fire, but the rings of the Spellstone immediately sped up into much quicker spin to capture it. Harry could see a faint glow of sickly purple before the usually unseen spell was turned into white light and sucked into the device, which immediately went still.

"That's one," he murmured with a swallow and glanced at the others. None of them missed the faint grey glow the Spellstone had started to emit. Taking the silence of others as approval to go ahead, Harry readied himself again.

Closing his eyes he thought of Voldemort, of Bellatrix Lestrange, of Sirius, of Dumbledore, of Snape, of Remus and of Tonks. He thought of all the things he'd do to change the past. He thought for all the times he had experienced this particular spell, and incanted it slowly in his head, unwilling to say it out loud.

Again the Unforgivable curse had no colour, but the device still reacted, springing into mad motion once more and devouring the spell. The white light that followed was brighter this time and once the spell was sucked into the orb in the middle, the grey glow intensified into something similar to the light of a candle flame.

"And that's two," Harry sighed. He didn't really like it too much, but for some reason he felt better. Like some tightly wound ball inside his chest had released a little and he could breathe easier.

"It's glowing already! Just from two of the three!" Magee murmured with fascination.

"And it didn't break either," Hermione whispered in shock. "We… we created a possible defence to at least two of the three Unforgivables!"

"Imagine what the effect would be like, if someone fired the Killing Curse at that thing," Vector muttered, folding her eyes. "The Killing Curse is the most powerful spell in existence… much, much more powerful than even the second strongest…"

Silent, meaningful looks were exchanged between the four inventors while Harry fingered the handle of the Elder Wand thoughtfully. He knew somewhere inside him that he probably could cast the last spell as well. It had been cast on him so many times and he had seen it cast so many times that he knew, probably better than even Voldemort had, what it did, how it worked and what it _took_ from the caster. But he didn't want to do it. He wasn't willing to pay the price of the spell just for an experiment.

"Do you want me to keep on firing spells?" he asked. "Few Crucios at that thing and it'll glow bright as a light bulb."

The others gave him dark looks before Magee nodded. "Yes… if you feel up to it, resume."

Harry nodded and smiled grimly. "It's actually kind of rewarding," he murmured while shooting another torture spell at the device. "To see something so damaging to do something useful for once."

It took four more curses to make the Spellstone shine as brightly as a light bulb. From there on it kept turning brighter with each spell. Harry started to feel slightly weary with the spell casting by the time it was shining about as bright as the sun. He still fired one more spell before Hermione told him to stop. Then the five of them watched with mild fascination how brightly glowing cracks started to appear into the surface of the misshapen ball of physical light in the middle of the Spellstone.

"I think we've reached the point of its endurance," Vector murmured, trying to peer at the device despite the brightness.

"Any more and the metal might start melting," Magee agreed with somewhat wild look about his face. "This metal… its capacity of storing magic is incredible."

"Imagine the power storing capacity of much larger Spellstone," Hermione whispered. "Harry could keep firing spells at it for hours and never even get it to glow!"

"And already this smaller could most likely used to power all of Atlantis - at least for few days," Vector nodded.

"This is incredible!" Hermione said. "We will need more people than first intended to power the Spellstone periodically, maybe we should even make a schedule for it, but do you think…" And from there on the chatter between Hermione, the two professors and the store keeper was too confusing and too fast for Harry to keep up or even understand. He tried to for a moment before deciding that he didn't particularly care and nor did he actually need to understand any of it.

"Yeah. I'm out of here. If you would excuse me, ladies, gentlemen," he said to the four magicians who were no longer listening, and had probably forgotten that he was even there. "Now that I've powered your device to maximum, and revealed you to be bigger geniuses than you already knew you were… I am going back to bed." Without anyone noticing, he slipped out of the room.

Really, he sighed to himself. Leave it to Hermione to invent something that can block an Unforgivable Curse while trying to come up with a power generator. Sadly the device's unintended possibilities were pretty much worthless for them now. They were in another galaxy, far away from the people who would've been the most likely candidates to use those particular spells on them.

Shaking his head he hurried away from their little laboratory, muttering to himself about mad inventors and crazy witches.

x

In the end Harry didn't get far enough to actually get back to bed. He had been heading back towards the general direction of the tent where he, the Weasleys and Hermione slept, when he was stopped by the sound of someone calling his name sharply.

"Harry? _Harry_! There you are!" It was Andromeda who was walking towards him with swift steps, carrying Teddy in her arms. "I have been looking all over for you, where have you been?! No, wait, it doesn't matter. Here take Teddy," she said and without listening to his sputters of objection, placed the baby to his arms. "I need you to look after him for a moment."

"Um… I'm happy to help, but Andromeda, I don't know how to take care of babies," Harry said quickly, looking down to Teddy. To his horror, the boy was awake. "I don't know what to do, I don't… Besides, I'm sleep deprived. I was awake most of the night. I'll _break_ him," he said in pleading tone.

"Don't be silly. It's not exactly astral magic," the woman snorted before handing him a bag. "Now, there is everything you need here. Nappies, lotion, powder if Teddy needs a change, though you should go fine without changing his nappy and instead of cleaning the one he has - few good Tergeos should do it, just make sure that you actually get it clean. I've also packed three bottles for him, warm them a little before give them to him - body temperature, little lower will do…"

"_Andromeda_," Harry groaned. "Most of what you just said went right through me! Really, isn't there someone better to take care of him, someone who actually knows what they'd be doing? Like Mrs. Weasley?"

"Don't be silly. Molly has her hands fully with the food storage," Andromeda said. "Besides there are plenty of people around here, you can ask help from them if it gets to that. Also, aren't you hanging around Pomfrey a lot? She at least should know a thing or two about baby care, being a healer."

Harry opened and closed his mouth but nothing came out at first and before anything did, Andromeda continued. "Now, if you get into emergency or something like that, I will be working with Aurora Sinistra in the room close to the gate room, the one with the glowing table. I should be there most of the day."

"Working with Professor Sinistra? What are you working on?" Harry asked confusedly while automatically hoisting the baby-bag to his shoulder.

"With the local laws of astronomy," she answered with a snort. "And the gate we used to get here."

"And that is important because…"

"Because stars and constellations - and near by planets and moons and asteroid belts - all affect a wizard's magic," the woman gave him a dark look. "Didn't you study astronomy in school? You of all people should know the gravitational pull stars can have on magic. Or did you think it was just a fluke that wizards have sad tendency of going into a war when Mars is certain position in the sky? Or that certain dates are more powerful than others? Trust me, it has nothing to do with the _date._"

Harry opened his mouth and closed it. Then he opened it again. "Well, I thought that was more about _astrology_ than _astronomy_," he said slowly.

Andromeda rolled her eyes. "You obviously have no gift with magical sciences," she said. "One has to wonder what on earth they teach in Hogwarts these days… Oh, never mind, Harry, never mind. Just look after Teddy while I'm busy. If he starts crying, check his nappy and if he's not wet, give him milk. If that doesn't work, ask someone's help."

With that said she hurried off, leaving Harry there with his currently green haired godson in his arms and slightly bewildered look about his face. For a while he looked after her until she vanished behind a corner. Then he turned his eyes down to the boy who was looking up to him - or somewhere in the general direction. "I guess I'm not going to bed after all," he murmured before frowning. "And I have a watch duty tonight too…"

Giving it a moment of thought he turned around and directed his steps towards the infirmary tent. Maybe he could Pomfrey to look after the boy for a while, at least for long enough to him to take a nap. And if not, he would at least get some pointers on proper baby care.

He took a route which took him pass a cluster of tents. He knew for a fact that some of DA members lived there - he had helped set the tents - and one of those was the Longbottom family. Since Teddy was with him, he walked at considerably slower pace than he usually would've but since he didn't seem to be in any hurry it was okay. It also gave him the chance to talk with some people.

"Neville?" he asked, scarred former Gryffindor, who by the looks of it had managed to packed most of his personal green house with him and was setting his plants to shelves near a window. When the other noticed him, Harry smiled. "Hey. I see you brought some greenery with you."

"Yeah, well… Sprout suggested it," Neville nodded, giving Teddy a curious look. "I didn't take all that many plants actually, only one of two samples of each and all the seeds I had… I hope we can get actual green house up and running soon, this corridor really isn't good for them. Who's this?"

"Teddy Lupin, my godson," Harry answered, tilting his upper body slightly so that Neville could see the boy properly. "Son of Remus Lupin, actually."

"Professor Lupin?" Neville asked with surprise and brushing his hands clean of dirt he moved closer to take a look. "He… fell at Hogwarts, didn't he? I didn't know you were that close."

"He was friend of my parents - and my friend. As was Teddy's mother. She too died at Hogwarts," Harry smiled sadly. "Andromeda, Teddy's grandmother, usually takes care of him but she seems to be busy today so I'm babysitting."

"He's cute little fella, isn't he?" Neville asked amusedly while bowing a little so that he could see the baby better. "Why the green hair?"

"Teddy's a Metamorphmagus. Last time I saw him, his hair was blue," Harry laughed softly and eyed the other wizard thoughtfully. Neville looked like he was pretty much okay, he actually looked better than okay. The smile was genuine and he didn't look tired at all. "How are you doing?" Harry still asked. "And your family?"

"We're doing fine. Granny and Uncle Algie aren't exactly comfortable here - the place creeps them out though they don't want to show it," Neville grinned. "But I think they'll get over it. They're looking after mum and dad and mostly keep it to our tent," he nodded towards nearby tent which had flowerpots piled around it.

"And your parents? How are they reacting to this place?"

"The same way they react to pretty much anything," Neville shrugged. "There's no change in them, but I think they're going to be happier here than they were, confined in St. Mungos."

"That's good to hear," Harry nodded and for a while they chatted about what had happened in Atlantis and how people were dealing with it. Harry told Neville about Elizabeth Weir, about the transporters they had found though they weren't using them just yet, and about Hermione's energy project, even telling him that Unforgivables could be used to power it.

"Only Hermione," Neville shook his head. Then he told Harry about the people he had met so far and what he had been doing - mostly helping out sprout and others who had brought plants with them, as well as lending DA and Order a hand every now and then. He also told what he thought about the people living in the tent near theirs and about how they seemed to be doing.

"There's a word going around," Neville then said somewhat teasingly. "That you've became bit of a mother hen, Harry."

Harry blinked. "What?" he then asked with confusion.

"Going around asking people how they're doing, if they need help, and generally offering people a shoulder to cry on. It's hilarious," Neville grinned before allowing it to mellow down to a smile. "But seriously, people here say that you've been looking after them. That's kind of… nice to know."

Harry flushed a little. "Well, Uh…" he grimaced. "Someone has to?" he then offered as weak excuse.

"It's good, really," Neville said with something that looked like encouraging. "People need to know that their leaders are looking after them. Not that I think that Kingsley and McGonagall aren't, but they're busy with other things. And you're _Harry Potter_ for heaven's sake. Knowing that you care is like having Merlin looking after your best interests. It's… giving people courage."

"Well… that's what I intended," the other mused. "Kind of."

"I say, keep it up," Neville nodded, before glancing up as he heard someone call his name. "It helps people. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think granny wants to talk to me. It was nice chatting with you, Harry."

"You too, Neville. Take care," Harry nodded.

Harry talked to few others in the corridor, but decided not to talk with all of them, only those who seemed to need the reminder that they weren't alone. He didn't want seem overbearing after all, he knew how that felt from the other's shoes. After having a brief talk with the Patils, he headed away from the cluster of tents and towards the infirmary.

"Mr. Potter! Good timing, I was just about to send a Patronus for you," Pomfrey said at the sight of him. She was smiling which Harry took as a good sign. "Doctor Weir is awake again," the matron said. "I thought you would like to see her."

"I do," Harry nodded, rocking Teddy absently when the baby made a sound of discomfort. "How is she?" he asked.

"Better. Much better," the matron said, glancing down to Teddy. "Ted Lupin?" she asked. "I thought he was being taken care of by his grandmother."

"Andromeda is busy at the moment so she forced me to baby sit," Harry explained with a slight grin. "Thankfully he has been nice and quiet baby so far, so it hasn't been hard." He nodded towards the flap leading to room where Weir had been the last time he had seen her. "Can I…?"

"Yes, go ahead. I'm about to get her and myself something to eat, actually, so having you keep an eye on her will work just fine for me," Pomfrey nodded. She threw a look towards Weir's room before heading off. Harry glanced after her, before pulling the tent flap to Weir's room aside.

"Hey," he greeted the woman who was sitting in the bed's edge, apparently intending to stand up. Weir still looked physically just as old as before, but there was something young in her now. She was old in the same way as Dumbledore had been old - ancient and still as young as Harry himself was. Harry smiled at the brightness in her eyes and wondered if she would eventually get Dumbledore's twinkle too. "I heard you were feeling better."

"Yes, much better. I feel like… like I did before I went to stasis. No, I feel like I did back when I was a _teenager_," Weir let out somewhat bewildered laugh, looking at her hands. "I still look like this, but… this is really amazing. I feel so _young_."

"That's magic for you," Harry grinned, taking seat in the empty chair next to the bed. "We were worried for a moment there, though. When you passed out. That doesn't happen with wizards."

"Yes, Madam Pomfrey told me as much," the woman nodded. "I'm just happy I woke up again." She trailed away when she noticed Teddy in Harry's arm. Then she looked between Harry and the baby. "Um…"

"My godson, Teddy Lupin," Harry chuckled, pulling the blanket around the boy aside a little so that Weir could see the baby a little better. "His parents died in a battle just few days before we came here. He's usually in care of his grandmother, but I'm babysitting today."

"I see. His hair. Why is it green?" Weir asked, looking more curious than shocked.

"It's a family trait called Metamorphmagus - skill you pass from parent to a child," the wizard explained. "Eventually he will be able to change his features as he wishes, but right now it happens mostly by itself. Next time you see him he will probably have red or yellow hair."

"Incredible. So, he can turn into anyone he wishes? Look like anyone he wants to?"

"Eventually. His mother was very good at it, good enough to pass her stealth tests without studying in when she was learning to be an Auror, or so she said," Harry smiled, leaning back. "So, now that you're feeling better, Doctor Weir, what do want to do? We could use your help around here, you seem to know Atlantis better than we do."

She thought about it and then nodded. "Yes. I suppose I do. I lived with the ancients for several weeks - and I did wander a little before and between periods of stasis to explore Atlantis a little," she murmured with a secretive smile. "I could teach you what I know. And if nothing else, I can teach you the ancient language."

"That would be helpful," Harry nodded. "One of our professors has had some luck translating it - it looks similar to our runes I think - but I don't think she understands all of it."

"I'll be happy to help," Weir said and stood up. "Oh, this is nice," she murmured, bending down to rub her knees. "I think I've had rheumatism for the last three thousand years. It's all gone now."

Harry chuckled as the elderly woman jumped once and then again, apparently just enjoying the fact that she could do it. He couldn't help but wonder if that was why so many old wizards and witches seemed a little batty. Going from old to feeling young again probably made them enjoy life in whole new way.

"I was unconscious almost for a full day, wasn't I?" Weir said while taking few curious steps as if to figure out how to use her body again. "Did I miss anything important?"

"Hmm… no, I don't think so. We're still in the surface, alive and kicking and so far people have been careful with the city, so we haven't managed to blow ourselves up yet," Harry shrugged. "And seems like Hermione's little energy project is going well and soon we will have more power."

"She… came up with a power source? In so little time?" Weir asked with amazement.

"It's Hermione - and she had help so it wasn't all her doing," Harry shrugged. "And as far as I can tell, it's not exactly complicated thing she came up with. It merely converts spells into purer forms so that we can use magic to power the city. Of course we probably need keep firing spells at the thing every now and then, but… it should be enough to keep us alive and kicking."

Weir stopped to stare at him. "You are thinking of using _magic_ to power the city?!" she asked and Harry wasn't sure if it was excitement or horror in her voice.

"Yeah. It powered the Stargate easily enough, so why not?" Harry shrugged, turning his eyes to Teddy who was making annoyed sounds in his arms. "Don't ask me how it works, though. I'm not good with that sort of stuff," he murmured and glanced up. "Um, you wouldn't happen to know anything about baby care?" he asked awkwardly. "This is my first time baby sitting…"

She looked surprised before bowing down to look at teddy. "Well, I suppose I might have more experience than you, but I never had any children of my own… Do you think he needs a change?" she asked amusedly. "He doesn't seem that unhappy… little grouchy maybe. Might be that he's hungry."

"I have no idea," Harry answered honestly, looking up to her imploringly. "Help?"

She laughed. "Let's take a look then."

By the time Madam Pomfrey returned, Harry had learned how to properly handle and feed a month old baby and Teddy had happily dozed off afterwards. After Weir had eaten, Pomfrey gave her a final check up - and also ran diagnostic charm on Teddy just for good measure - before saying that Weir was healthy as a nineteen year old - despite her skin and her hair which was likely to remain white - and that she was free to leave.

"I suggest that you do plenty of physical activity, though," the matron said. "It'll help you get more adjusted to your body - and little bit of exercise is never amiss."

"I will keep that in mind," Weir promised before looking at Harry expectantly.

"Shall we leave then?" Harry asked, rocking dozing teddy slightly. "I guess you're eager to see what Atlantis looks like, now that it's on the surface," he grinned at her look of excitement. "We should probably report to Kingsley too. He might have some questions."

"Let's go then," Weir said excitedly.

"Wait, Doctor Weir, your footwear," Pomfrey said, motioning to the simple slippers sitting in the floor. "You might want to put those on before you go."

"Oh, right. Of course."

Harry chuckled softly while leading the excitable woman eventually out of the infirmary tent. Weir gasped slightly when she realised that the tent was much smaller on the outside that it was from the inside, but Harry had been expecting it. "That was pretty much my reaction too, the first time I saw a magical tent," he laughed. "It's some sort of undetectable expansion charm, but I have no idea how it really works."

"Incredible," Weir murmured before noticing a window near by and taking hesitating steps towards it. Then she sped up a little and almost pressed her face against the window. "It worked, it really worked! Oh, Atlantis looks so beautiful in sunlight. I've only ever seen it underwater."

"Yeah, it's pretty amazing. I think it's only going to look more beautiful once, or if, we can get gardens up and running. Once Hermione and the rest can get the Spellstone working properly, we can probably start working with that," Harry mused while pointing down to the pier. "I'm thinking that that area, the slightly lower area around the buildings, might be meant for gardens. What do you think?"

"It is," Weir nodded in agreement. "Janus told me that before the war with the wraith, Atlantis was lush with life and that he did his best thinking in the park… But they eventually had to submerge the city to protect it, and… well, the park didn't survive it. They eventually cleaned the remains away because they were bit of a danger for Atlantis, floating around it like debris…"

"Oh, that's good," Harry nodded and smiled with relief. "We shouldn't have any problems growing our food around here, then."

They met up with Kingsley and McGonagall not much later. Weir answered lot of their questions about how Atlantis worked and why and how much power it used and how they could minimise the use, and if there was anything dangerous in there and so forth and so forth. Weir seemed to be rather well informed about the city - and since she had learned from the ancients themselves, they could trust her knowledge. She also understood the ancient language better than Babbling, because not only had she studied it for months back in earth but she had spoken it for weeks with the ancients.

"I am willing to teach anyone who wants to learn," she said when McGonagall mused if there was possibility of setting up classes for the language, for Atlantean systems and for just about everything else in Atlantis.

"The more people around here know what they are doing, the better," Kingsley mused, nodding his head. "It might be best that we wait until Hermione finishes the Spellstone, and we have more energy here. As far as I can understand it, we shouldn't waste any of it before we have more to spare."

"I might be able to help with that as well - not with the spell casting, obviously, but I know where and how Atlantis gets it power," Weir said, trying not to appear too eager, but failing somewhat. "If you have a working power source, I might be able to help you connecting it to the city."

Kingsley didn't seem to miss her eagerness, but only smiled at it. "That sounds good, Doctor. Harry, could you show Doctor Weir to where Hermione, Professor Flitwick and Vector and master Magee are working?" he asked. "You've visited the laboratory before, haven't you?"

"Yeah, Hermione dragged me there just this morning," Harry chuckled. "Come on," he nodded to Weir. "I'm sure the others would be delighted to have you working on their magic revolutionising project, Doctor Weir."

"Oh, call me Elizabeth," she answered, following him with vigour that very few women of her age possessed - and it wasn't only because of the anti-aging potion she had taken.

"Then you can call me Harry," the wizard answered, smiling at the light in her eyes. "I see you're eager to get to work, huh?"

"I've waited ten thousand years to be able to do something _new_ and _revolutionary_ here," she answered. "I've waited ten thousand years to explore this city. Of course I'm eager."

Harry chuckled. "Well, that's good. I have a feeling that there's lot to be done around here and even more to be explored," he mused and smiled. "And with you around and the people working with the energy project… we just might be around long enough to do it all too."

x

My apologies for possible grammar errors and such. If you notice any which are glaringly obvious, feel free tell me so that I can correct them.


	4. IV, Home

**IV chapter**

Harry leaned back against a wall while watching Hermione, Professors Flitwick and Vector and master Magee work. They were all busy around much larger version of the Spellstone, this one being almost two feet high with central stone which was the size of both Harry's fists put together. Harry wasn't the only one watching them and the motionless device - most of the order and some of the DA was there, and probably every one in Atlantis knew about it.

Two days after supplying them with his help, the group of magical engineers had managed to finish their final version - or what they were calling, the working version. According to Hermione it was likely that they would eventually manage to make a better version of the Spellstone they had now and then better version of that because apparently the current Spellstone was rather crude and there might be ways to get more magic out of it that they hadn't realised yet.

Harry shook his head at the thought of making such a revolutionary object better than it already was, and glanced around him. They were in the gate room, and the Spellstone was going to stand at a corner of the lower room. At first they had indented to put the Spellstone up in the power room of Atlantis - where the city's normal power sources were supposed to be housed. But the room was small, out of reach and it would be difficult for people to get there to power the Spellstone. So instead they just needed to put another Spellstone to the power room which was going to receive the power of this Spellstone and hand it over to Atlantis when the city needed it.

"We are thinking of making more of these and having them work similarly. That way we can put them into the living areas and places where there are plenty of people, so that people can fire spells at them at their convenience," Hermione said.

"Also, once we get a school up and running, we are thinking of using the Spellstones as practice targets in school work," Flitwick had said excitedly. "So at the same time we can help the students strengthen their magic and power the city. It's perfect!"

Perfect was maybe one way of putting it, but the Spellstone had the big flaw that made it quite bit less perfect than it could've been. The fact that it needed to be powered daily, if not hourly. Even if all wizards in Atlantis shot one of their most powerful spells at the Spellstone all at once, the energy of that wouldn't last in the city for more than few days before running out. That why it was best that as much magic as possible was shot at the Spellstone - dozens of spells per day if possible. It was either that or making Harry to fire five Crucios every day at the Spellstone with the Elder Wand. As much as Harry liked to help, that wasn't his idea of good time.

"Once people get into the practice of firing spells at the Spellstone every time they see it, it'll be alright," Kingsley said as they watched the two professors, one shopkeeper and one brilliant witch who hadn't even finished her schooling yet. "And with more Spellstones in the city, I think we will be alright."

"Yes, I suppose so," Harry murmured. If it ever got to that, they could venture out through the Stargate in search for other power sources - like the ZPM's Elizabeth knew about. They all wanted to avoid it, though. Travel between worlds was a thing none of them was exactly comfortable with yet. Elizabeth didn't seem to understand it, but if they could avoid it, they probably wouldn't use the Stargate at all.

"Alright, we're done," Magee said, stepping back from the Spellstone. It stood on a tall metal stand now and looked nothing like a weird decoration, a statue maybe. "The pedestal will be the transmitter between this Spellstone and the other in the power room."

"Will this one keep on spinning?" Harry asked, motioning at the device. "Or will it immediately hand the magic over to the other Spellstone and then just stand still?"

"It'll keep on spinning as long as there is power in the Stone in the power room," Flitwick nodded. "But it'll slow down significantly when there is only day's worth of energy in the power room Spellstone. We figured that it would be best that there would be a sort of warning if the energy was about to run out."

"Alright then," Kingsley said, taking out his wand. "Shall we? Ready your wands, ladies, gentleman.."

Everyone took out their wands, Harry one among them. Near by Elizabeth watched with obvious excitement as they all pointed their wands to the unassuming Spellstone which stood still in it's pedestal. Hermione, Flitwick and Magee seemed eager too, though Vector seemed to be more serious about it.

"Ready, aim… fire!" Kingsley called and the entire room was lit with Spellfire and noise as people shouted out spells. Harry cast his spells silently, using well learned attack spells and Expelliarmus which, thanks to the fact that he had used it so often and against so many powerful opponents, was actually one of his most powerful spells.

Under the spell fire, the Spellstone was moving madly, it's many rings spinning fast in order to capture all the spells. As yellow, red, blue, white and all other colours mingled in the spinning of the rings, Harry could see a multitude of colours before they were all slowly spun into brilliant whiteness and spell by spell sucked into the stone in the centre. Kingsley called a ceasefire after five or so minutes - and probably more than hundred spells - and in silence they watched how the last spells were spun to white and sucked inside. The mad spinning of the rings slowed down some but didn't stop entirely, continuing to spin in rather fast pace around the faintly glowing centre.

"Wohoo! It works!" George said, breaking the tense silence and making everyone cheer. Around them Atlantis's lights began to glow more brightly, lighting up as the power of their spells began to run the city's systems.

"Is there anyway to tell how much power we just gave to the city?" Kingsley asked, turning to the inventors of the Spellstone. "Other than the spinning that is?"

"Yes, yes, I think we should be able to see it from Atlantis's systems," Hermione said, turning around and heading towards the nearest staircase up. Elizabeth, who seemed very impressed with the Spellstone - or possibly with the magic they had fired at it - followed her, and once they reached the control room Harry could hear her advising Hermione on how to pull up the power relay schematics, whatever those were.

Few moments after, Hermione stepped to the baluster to look down on them. "With that, we should be able to power every system in Atlantis for about four days," she said excitedly. "But since we're using less power than that, Atlantis is all set for almost a week."

"Let's not get complacent though. The more often spells are shot at the Stone, the better. Just because we have power to spare, we shouldn't stop supplying it," Magee said.

"Of course not," Kingsley said, glancing around. "All of you be sure to remember that. If you have moment to spare and you're near by, go a head and fire handful of spells at the Spellstone. And let the others know as well."

"It shouldn't be too hard to get people to do it," someone in the crowds laughed. "Firing spells at that thing was fun."

"And this way people have a thing to safely take out their possible aggressions on," Harry murmured more to himself than others. "What better way to deal with anger problems than direct them at a device that can't break under spell fire?"

"Good point," Ginny, who was near by, said and grinned. "It's a magical punching bag!"

A near by wizard gave her a confused look. "What's a punching bag?"

"Does this mean that we can _finally_ start making ready for the gardens?" Sprout in the meanwhile was demanding to know. "The sooner we can get the gardens, the green houses and possibly fields growing, the sooner we can stop worrying about food, you know. And some of the magical seeds I have with me are literally screaming to get into soil."

"I suppose we can go ahead with that," Kingsley said looking up to the second lever where Hermione and Elizabeth were. "Doctor Weir, could you help Professor sprout with these, since you are the most likely person to be able to figure out where she can grow her gardens in?"

"Of course. I'll be glad to help," the muggle woman nodded. "But before you start with that, shouldn't you maybe arrange better living areas for your people? Not that there is anything wrong with the tents, it's just that Atlantis has several sections where everyone could settle permanently."

"Oh, there's a thought," Magee nodded. "The shopkeepers are also eager to know if there is a place where we can set up our stores here, any sort of nice big place where we can create new version of Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade."

"I can pull up the city's schematics to see if there's a place like that," Elizabeth nodded, and as she moved back to the consoles, Magee hurried up to see. Mrs. Weasley followed him, probably wishing to know if there was a place for a dining hall in Atlantis.

"In the mean while, I want Order and DA continue searching the immediate areas," Kingsley said, turning to look at the others. "We can probably find anything on the maps, but I'd prefer we had some first hand experience with this place. Arrange teams of two or three and start examining the towers closest to this one - but try not to activate anything. Just see what's where."

The others nodded and Kingsley motioned them to move out. "Harry, wait, I have something else in mind for you," Kingsley said. "We've all been noticing that you've… let's say, we've noticed that you've been interacting with lot of people in the last few days."

"We're going to live together for probably the rest of our lives, and there is not so many of us, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to make some new friends," Harry murmured uncomfortably. "What about it?"

"Well, I thought you might be able to tell thing or two about them than the rest of us can't. Some of us might know some other people, but definitely not all," Kingsley said. "And since you've made it your business, I figured you might want to handle the living area matter. Find places for people to live in, places where they will be comfortable. We don't want bad living arrangements added to the already existing issues of people around here."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I can do that," he agreed. "Though I don't think I can do it all by myself. I'd need help," he added. "So if you don't mind, I'd like to have Ginny with me. She probably knows lot of people too, since she has been helping them through the DA."

"That's a good idea," Kingsley agreed. "Do what you feels you must and let me know if you can find suitable places. Once they have been deemed safe, people can start settling down."

Harry nodded and watched how the Auror headed away. Then glanced around to see if Ginny was still there, but apparently she had already headed off as well. Shaking his head, he took out his wand and waved it, thinking of a happy memory. Prongs materialised before him and stood to wait. "Ginny, unless you're busy with other things, mind coming with me to find places for people to live in?" he asked, imprinting the message to the Patronus before sending it away to find the girl.

As Prongs galloped away, Harry headed to the upper floor where Elizabeth was giving Mrs. Weasley directions to a place which would probably be suitable for dining hall. "That's one of the areas where the ancients often dined in," she explained. "There are several places like that in Atlantis, but this one is closest to the control tower."

"Any of them big enough for a dozen or more shops?" Magee asked eagerly.

"I don't know, but I have a place in mind, here," Elizabeth pointed at a map of snow-flake like Atlantis on the crystal screen, before pulling the image closer to bring out a three dimensional image. "This is the Meditation Hall - one of the Ancients took me there once. It's basically large empty hall with fountains here and here - but I was thinking these would suit for you," she motioned at rooms which surrounded the Meditation Hall. "They are meant for private meditation, but I think they would work well as places for your shops. They all have doors which open to the lager Meditation Hall, so…"

"That's perfect!" Magee enthused, leaning forward to take a better look. "Oh, some of those are pretty big. The Three Broomsticks would fit somewhere here too."

"The what?" Elizabeth asked amusedly.

"A pub," Harry answered while approaching them and taking a look. "That seems like pretty nice place."

"Oh, it is. The ceiling is high and made of glass," Elizabeth nodded. "Of course ten thousand years ago you could only see water through it, but now… the entire hall should be alight with sunlight."

"I would've loved to know about that when we first arrived. And so would've the centaurs," Harry mused before shrugging his shoulders. Well, it didn't matter anymore - especially not if they would soon start growing gardens, parks, fields and who knew what else outside.

"What about the gardens?" Sprout asked as if reading his mind. "You said that there is a place suited for them."

"Place meant for them, even," Elizabeth nodded while pulling the map into general view. Then she motioned at the area around the base of the buildings. "This, the lower area of the piers. It was designed to house gardens - and once it did too. There should be a watering system for it somewhere. All you need to do is to fill it with soil, plant your seeds… and with automated watering system, you won't even have to worry about that."

"That's good, that's really good," the herbologist murmured with a smile blooming to her face. "I don't think we have enough soil with us to fill the entire area yet, but we should be able to fill one section of the city and start food production… can we start unloading the soil there immediately, or…"

"It would probably be better to check it for damage first - and that the watering system works as it should," Elizabeth said. "Ten thousand years is a long time, lot of might've happened. Some of the sections of the city were flooded when you arrived, that might've done lot of damage. I need to run diagnostic to see that everything works…"

"Before you start with that," Harry leaned forward. "Can you tell me where the living quarters are located?" Harry asked. "I'm supposed to check out if they're liveable."

"Well, there are such areas scattered all around the city, as the ancients mostly slept near to their work stations," Elizabeth said. "But these three buildings are specifically meant for living," she motioned at buildings in three different parts of the map. "When the ancients were more numerous and the city was full, great number of people lived in these buildings. Each one of them is probably equipped to house thousands of people so you should fit into any one of them without any trouble."

"Alright. Where is the meditation hall?" Harry asked. It would probably be best, at least for now, to keep the people close together. And selecting building closest to the future shopping street would probably be for the best as well.

"Here, but the fastest way to get there from anywhere in the city would be by via the transporters," the aged muggle woman said. "As well as faster way getting into the apartment buildings as well."

"Alright. I'm going to check all three of them out then," Harry murmured, pressing the building locations into his memory so that he could take a transporter there. "Thanks Elizabeth."

"No problem," the woman nodded before turning to Sprout and starting to explain something about the watering system.

"Hey, Harry," Ginny called just as Harry stepped closer to the balcony to see if she had arrived yet. "Do you have any place in mind yet?" she asked while starting to climb up the stairs to get to the second level. "Or are we going to start looking blind?"

"No, Elizabeth pointed three buildings out for me which are meant for living," Harry answered. "You all set to go?"

"Yeah, let's go."

"What do you mean? Half of Atlantis's systems operate by mental control!" Elizabeth gasped somewhere behind them as they headed for the transporter. "How can you not have noticed it? I thought you knew already - you don't even use the manual control for the doors around here…"

"It'll be good to finally be able to settle down here," Ginny said as they approached the transporter. "Tents are good for a while, but they don't really give the impression of home or settling down, you know? It'll be better once we have actual physical places where we can make changes, which we can decorate… and make our home."

"Yeah, Harry agreed as the transporter doors opened. They stepped inside and Harry picked the building which was closest to the Meditation Hall. "Let's start on the top floor and go down from here," he said while selecting the floor.

"Sounds good," Ginny nodded and gasped as the while light surrounded them. "It's my first time using one of these," she explained when Harry gave her a confused look. "They're really fast aren't they?" she asked when the doors of the transporter opened again to reveal that they were in another place now. "Much faster than floo."

"Much more comfortable too," Harry said while taking out his wand. It proved out to be needless, as the moment they stepped out, the dark corridor around them started to light up. "That is so handy," he murmured, but kept the wand at hand. "There is no one here but it's still probably best we don't split up. We might get lost."

"Good point," Ginny nodded and followed him down the corridor. "So, have you given your place any thought? What kind of place you'd want to live in?"

"Liveable. Aside from that, I don't really have any expectations," Harry shrugged and chuckled softly. "Okay, maybe I'd want a bed or something in it. I don't think I have one. Unless you count the ones Kreacher brought from Grimmauld place, but they're a bit lumpy I think…"

"We brought plenty from the Room of Requirement," Ginny reassured him and grinned. "I'll let you have a first pick if you'd like. There are some really nice in the bunch, you know."

"Why, that's quite kind of you, Miss Weasley, thank you," Harry grinned back.

"You're most welcome, Mr. Potter," she answered and then halted as a door opened next to Harry as they walked pass it. Harry stopped as well and glanced into the doorway before shrugging his shoulders and stepping inside. Immediately lights turned on.

"Oh, wow," Ginny murmured. The room they had came into was enormous with similar wall decorations as in the area from where they had found Elizabeth. Most of the light actually came from the merrily bubbling aquarium-look-alikes. "This is really nice," the witch murmured.

"Bit too big maybe," Harry murmured, stepping closer to the back wall. As he did, some sort of mechanism kicked in and as they watched, the wall retracted to reveal windows behind it. Unlike in the rooms in the control tower, this room had enormous windows which reached from ceiling to floor and gave excellent view over the Atlantis piers. "Wow. Nice view," he commented.

"This room doesn't seem to have any others connected to it," Ginny mused, walking along the walls. "No bathroom."

"We don't even know if the ancients had private bathrooms. Might be that they all shared," Harry murmured though he hoped that he was wrong. He didn't like the idea of forever sharing bathroom with someone else - and knew that neither did most people. "Maybe this room is some sort of meeting room, or just a lounge area for all the people in this floor. Shall we continue on?"

The next room was much smaller - though it was still about the size of Gryffindor common room - and it had other rooms connected to it. And to their relief, they found the first private bathrooms in Atlantis. Two of them. "Seven rooms all together, plus the bathrooms and the kitchen," Ginny mused after quick inspection around the nice quarters. "This seems like a perfect place for a big family."

"This place is really nice too. Rather like the penthouses in muggle movies," Harry nodded, his eyes trailing over the decorations. "Add some nice furniture… If they're all like this, I think people will be really happy to live in here."

Most of them proved out to be quite nice - and there were almost thirty of them just in huge topmost floor. Some of the apartments were bigger, others were smaller. The floor planning was different in each floor and some of the houses actually reached from floor to floor. The biggest apartment they found in building had no less than twenty two rooms, whilst the smallest had three plus a bathroom. Most of the floors also had lounge areas like in the upper floor - where there was three of them - large halls with nothing but lot of space and beautiful view in them. Some of the floors also had what seemed to be swimming pools, except they were currently all empty.

They didn't check all the apartments or even all the floors, though, not after figuring out that the building had probably more than hundred floors. It would've taken all day - or probably all week - so after about four floors they just did a general sweep through the building to see that everything was alright and nothing had flooded during Atlantis's long years in the bottom of the ocean.

"I think we can safely say that we will all fit here," Ginny said after twenty floors. "With up to forty apartments per floor, most of them enormous, we won't even take ten floors from this buildings. If even that."

"Some people will want to live alone and eventually the wizards and witches who are kids now will want to move out. So little bit of extra space isn't a bad thing," Harry murmured. "Should we check out the other buildings? I think this entire building follows pretty much the same pattern all the way down."

"I say that we should live in this one. The view is amazing in every apartment and then apartment sizes vary so much that everyone should be happy here," Ginny murmured. "But yeah. Let's go take a look at the others. That way we can safely say we did."

Harry agreed and they headed to take a look at the other apartment buildings. Not much after they found that they were all pretty much the same - the colour schemes were a bit different maybe, as were the decorations. The first building had been more purple and orange shaded while the second one had greenish decorations and then last one leaned towards blue hues. Together they decided that the first one worked best for them - purple was after all the colour of magic.

Selecting a building was one thing, though. Selecting places for specific people and families was another. "The biggest families should of course get the bigger apartments," Ginny said. "They're all pretty much equally nice otherwise."

"The ones in the uppermost levels are probably the nicest if you judge by the view, though," Harry mused. "Unless you count the lower floors once they get stuff growing, that is. Then the lower floors should have pretty nice view too… I think we should suggest to Sprout to get a park growing around the apartment building. But before that, the view won't be too nice there. So I think we should start selecting apartments from the top"

"Good point about the park. People will like the idea that they can just step outside of the building and feel grass - or moss or whatever - underneath their feet. Not everyone will want to live in the upper floors, though," Ginny said with a frown. "Some might not like highs too much."

"Ah, yeah, there is that too," Harry mused. "I think we should start asking people what level they would want to live and what kind of apartment size they would prefer."

The headed back to the central tower, where they briefly reported back to Kingsley to tell what they had found and what they thought - and their hopes about making a park around the building. Kingsley gave his approval to their plans before letting them continue on working. After getting some supplies to write notes with, Harry and Ginny split up to go around asking people what sort of places they wanted to live.

"Hey, may I have your attention for a moment?" Harry called when he arrived to one corridor with about dozen tents - most of them housing full families. Some of the people from there were apparently part of either the Order or the DA because not all of them were present, but the ones who were gathered around him to listen.

"We found a place where we can permanently live in," Harry explained to them. "A building with several pretty nice apartments, all with bathrooms and all bigger ones with kitchens of their own. There is over hundred floors in the building, each with about twenty to forty apartments of different sizes. If you have any preferences about which floor you would like to live in and how many rooms you would want, that would help considerably later on when people will start moving in…"

The people had lot of questions about the apartments, most which Harry tried to answer to the best of his ability. They weren't all exactly happy about living in apartments, as most wizards were adjusted to living in houses of their own, but those sorts of housings weren't available at Atlantis, so they had to deal with it. it took about half an hour, but Harry managed to write down all the preferences of specific families and the individuals who were going to live alone.

"Thank you. We don't know when we are going to start moving into these apartments, but it should be pretty soon now that we're not in danger of running out of energy around here," Harry said. "Are there any other questions before I move on?"

"Yes, um… I heard that they're going to start making vegetable gardens and such soon," one witch asked curiously. "I thought this city was made entirely of metal. Where are they going to grow the gardens?"

Harry glanced around to see if there was a window near by before motioning the witch in question to follow him to the nearest one. He pointed down to the base of the buildings of Atlantis. "See, there, that lower section? It's meant for soil and growing plants. Professor Sprout has enough soil with her to for one section of the city - were going to suggest it to be the one where the apartment building is in so that people will have easy access on it."

"So, we will have things growing around here," someone in the small crowd sighed. "That's a relief to hear."

Harry smiled and nodded in agreement. "Once they will start making the gardens, it's likely that everyone here will have to join in the planting and eventually taking care of the plants, at least in the beginning," he said. "Professor Sprout can't do all of it by herself."

"We aren't all herbologists or farmers, Mr. Potter," a wizard in the crowd said with look of distaste on his face. "Some of us for a reason."

"But all of you will still have to eat," Harry shrugged. "Little bit of physical toil has never hurt anyone and selfishness isn't a thing we can afford anymore, ladies and gentleman. If you wish to survive around here, you need to work for it."

"And you, are you going to work in the gardens?" a young witch, a Hogwarts student probably, asked curiously.

"If it'll be any help, but at first I will probably be busy with creating the centaur habitat," Harry answered and when the others gave him confused looks, he explained. "A forest. I'm going to help in the growing of a forest for the centaurs to live in. Now, if there are no other questions, I need to move on."

And continue he did. Thorough most of the day until finally he and Ginny had most of the population's preferences written down. Comparing their notes later on while grabbing a bite to eat, they noticed to their relief that for the most part people had spread out through the building rather nicely - though most people either wanted to live at the top or at the bottom.

"We should be able to accommodate everyone. We should book the biggest houses for the biggest families first," Ginny mused. "And go down from there. "

"Do we have any families of fifteen or more?" Harry asked, thinking about the biggest apartments.

"No, the biggest family that wishes to live together seems to be a family of eight actually," Ginny answered. "But most people want some extra rooms in case they. You know… get any additions."

Harry blinked and leaned his chin to his palm. "There's a thought. Do we have any witches here who are pregnant?" he asked.

"Two - well, actually, one witch and one muggle woman," Ginny answered. "Lavender Brown's mother Violet is going to have a baby in seven months, and Helen Scrivener, the mother of a Ravenclaw from my year named Emma, is going to have her baby in three months."

"Emma Scrivener," Harry murmured, trying to remember if she had been in Dumbledore's Army. "I don't know her."

"She's a half blood, her mum's a muggle and dad's a wizard. She wasn't in the Dumbledore's Army, but fought at our side in Hogwarts," Ginny shrugged and smiled sadly. "Her parents were on the run for the most of the last year - and her dad's dead… killed while defending her mother."

Harry grimaced, wondering how many families there shared similar tales. "Well, let's make sure they have nice places. Also, if people ask for extra rooms, lets give them. With this many apartments, most of which will stay empty, we certainly have enough space to be generous."

"I thought so too," Ginny nodded. "We should also get a good place for Madam Pomfrey to set up infirmary in. I don't know if we should make it in the apartment building or some other place…"

"The apartment building might work the best since most people are going to be there," Harry mused. "Either that or the Meditation Hall - that's where they're going to put up the shopping street. There should be enough space there for an infirmary…"

And so on the plans went. Later they headed back to the apartment building to mark the apartments which had been spoken for and making sure that they had everything in them working. Once Kingsley later gave them the permission, they started transporting people to their new accommodations, one family at a time because most of them had lot of belongings. By the time the night came, they had managed to help about ten families and half dozen individuals who wanted to live alone to their new accommodations, and the rest were going to be moved in the following day.

Whilst they had been working on this, the shopkeepers had deemed the Meditation Hall a perfect place for their new shopping street - or as perfect as it was going to get around Atlantis. Sadly, because the rooms they were going to set up their stores in were too small for it, they couldn't live in their shops like it was habit with wizard kind, but they assured later on that living in the apartment building with the rest of the people worked best for them.

Madam Pomfrey decided to set up infirmary to both to the apartment building and to the shopping street, though the one in the Meditation Hall was for emergencies and the one in the apartment building was the official one. She was going to be working there together with Slughorn who decided that it would be best to have the potions laboratory near to the infirmary. Elizabeth Weir also pointed them the places where the ancients had practiced medicine and actual laboratories, but they preferred nor to touch any of those yet.

Thankfully Harry and Ginny didn't even have to suggest the location of the gardens to Sprout who had already decided on the section of the city where both the Meditation hall and the apartment building were. She chose them because it was the biggest section of the city, and garden area would get lot of sunlight. Together with Elizabeth, they had figured that the watering system there was sorry state - and that thankfully Atlantis's systems had nothing against few good repairing charms.

"I love magic," Elizabeth sighed after explaining that they had already gotten section of the watering system running - and that it hadn't taken more than little work to get the water filtration system in that section working as well.

All in all, it looked like they were off to a good start.

x

"They're not going to be any help to us if it isn't done, and the longer it's left undone, the more nervous they're going to get," Mrs. Weasley explained the following day, just after Harry and Ginny had finished taking the last of the people to the apartment building. Ginny was still in the building helping people to settle down, whilst Harry had returned to the control tower to report back to Kingsley.

"Oh, the house elves, I forgot about them completely," the Auror murmured, rubbing his fingers over his forehead. "Is there anyone here who knows how to do the bonding?" he then asked. "How is it done anyway?"

"Ah… I, actually don't know," Mrs. Weasley answered, frowning slightly. "I was under the impression that… someone knew."

"Are you talking about the house elves," Harry asked while approaching them. "About bonding them to Atlantis?"

"Yes. As they are right now they're causing more trouble than they're helping, popping in and out at the slightest noise," Mrs. Weasley sighed. "You wouldn't happen to know how to bond a house elf to a property, Harry dear?"

"I have no idea," he answered honestly. "But I know someone who does. Kreacher!" he called and was immediately awarded with a pop. "Did I interrupt something?" Harry asked curiously when the elf gave him a glare the likes of which he hadn't given to him in months.

"Kreacher was moving the items from Grimmauld Place to master's new quarters," the elf drawled with look of annoyance on his face. "How May Kreacher help master? Kreacher wants it done quickly so that he can go back to work."

"But, uh… I haven't selected quarters yet," Harry said. He hadn't even thought about it when he had been helping the others move into their quarters. He shook his head. "Never mind. Kreacher, do you know how house elves are bonded into properties?"

The elf gave him an odd look. "House elf either is born into a house, or is asked to serve it by the master of the house," he answered slowly. "Kreacher was born to the mansion of the Blacks so Kreacher served the mansion of the Blacks. Some elves are asked to a house, but not all do well like that."

Harry frowned, thinking back to Winky and Dobby. Dumbledore had asked them to serve Hogwarts. Dobby had already been a little strange so he had been fine, but Winky had been… well. She hadn't done well. Back then Harry had thought it was because she was a so called proper house elf and to elf like that being given clothes is like a death sentence, but now Harry had to wonder if it was rather because Dumbledore had paid for her services in Hogwarts.

"That might prove to be a problem," Kingsley murmured, glancing around. "No one here is the master of this property. None of us can claim to own Atlantis - and none of us will."

"Does it have to be a master of the property?" Harry asked from Kreacher.

The house elf thought about it. "Kreacher doesn't know," he finally said. "But Kreacher has heard of house elves asked to serve properties that haven't belonged to anyone. Hogwarts elves are often asked."

"And they were asked to serve by the current head - the Headmaster who doesn't exactly own Hogwarts," Kingsley murmured, nodding to himself in understanding, before frowning slightly. "But none of us can claim that position either."

"Not unless you throw together a government and crown yourself the Minister of Atlantis," Harry grinned.

"We were thinking more along the lines of council. We don't want the Ministry for Magic to repeat itself here, so we intend to keep things simple and open," the Auror answered with a mirthless snort. "And I don't want to acclaim any position without the full approval of everyone here."

"I think you already have everyone's approval, Kingsley," Mrs. Weasley said amusedly.

"Only because Harry isn't in the political race," Kingsley chuckled, glancing at the younger wizard. "If you had shown any sign of wanting to make the rules around here, you'd already be the king of this place."

"Yeah, right," Harry muttered, shaking his head. "Bit of publicity and getting hit by a killing curse doesn't exactly make good nomination for the position for a leader in my opinion. If it did we'd have history of long line of very dead rulers and I'd be the black sheep of this most distinguished - and extinguished - line of leaders."

Kingsley snorted with laugher before suddenly stopping. He snapped his fingers, apparently getting an idea. before getting an idea. "Hey, Kreacher, does it have to be official leader?" he asked. "Or official master of the property? Can it be, like…" he searched for words, "spiritual leader?"

The house elf considered it. "Maybe," he then said. "Kreacher has never heard of it, but Kreacher cannot think why it shouldn't work. If people consider someone master or leader of a place… Kreacher doesn't think it matters what sort of master the master is."

Kingsley grinned widely, turning his eyes to Harry who could already tell what he had in mind. "Harry, you've just became the spiritual leader of Atlantis," the Auror said, his grin widening when it encountered Harry's flat stare. "Congratulations, your grace. Now, go and bond the house elves to your domain."

"Screw you, Kingsley," Harry said coldly.

Mrs. Weasley chuckled. "Now now, Harry, that isn't that bad idea - and Kingsley has a point, in a way," she said, smiling warmly to him. "You give people hope and encouragement. Most came here because you were coming, you know - they figured that if you thought it was a good idea, it probably was."

"That doesn't make me a leader of any sort. It just makes them… easy to lead. And even easier to mislead," Harry muttered, looking at the two of them worriedly. "You're really serious about this, huh? Are you _insane_?"

"Just go and bond the house elves to Atlantis, Potter," Kingsley chuckled. "Well talk about what other sacred duties you might have later on."

"Well, before I go perform my holy service, I have report of a very worldly duty I have already performed," Harry rolled his eyes and handed a parchment he had been carrying. "Ginny and I finished getting everyone settled down in the apartment building," he said. "She's still there helping people settle in."

"Good, that's good. You did get me a place too, didn't you?"

"You can sleep in one of the storages for all I care," Harry muttered.

"What was that?"

"I said yes, we selected you a place with three rooms and a bathroom, from the floor one hundred and eighteen, the third floor from up," Harry answered and glanced at Kreacher. "Which floor am I living, by the way? You should know since you're moving stuff already."

"In the top floor of course," Kreacher answered.

Harry blinked thinking back at the top floor. Almost all the apartments in that floor were taken, except for the… Harry grimaced. "It's the apartment with fifteen rooms, right?" he asked and Kreacher nodded as if it was obvious. The wizard sighed heavily. "Well, I suppose that way all the stuff from Grimmauld Place should fit there," he muttered, wondering what hell he was going to do with fifteen room - and that count didn't even include the bathrooms and the kitchen.

"I'm sure it's just the apartment for the spiritual leader of Atlantis," Kingsley said solemnly, unable to keep a straight face. "Now, how about those elves, your grace?"

Harry sighed again, wondering since when Kingsley had start channelling Fred and if George knew about it. "Fine, but this'll be the last time this spiritual leader stuff is ever mentioned, alright?" He had already spent seven years as the god damned Boy Who Lived and three as the Chosen One and that was about as iconic as he wanted to ever become - and he had never actually wanted it.

"Come on Kreacher, you can give me some pointers," Harry said, motioning the elf to follow him when he started to head away and towards the food storage area. "What exactly should I say to the house elves? Is there some sort of certain pattern of speech I should use or some words I should say…?"

"Master should just tell who and what he is and what he want of the house elves," Kreacher drawled, somehow seeming very pleased about the whole thing. "If master's strength and power over this place is strong enough and the house elves agree to do what master asks, they will be bonded to the duty."

"I need to say _what_ I am? I think they can tell just by looking at me that I'm --"

"Kreacher means that master needs to say his title."

"Oh. Okay," Harry nodded. "So, I just say them something like… um… _I'm Harry Potter, the spiritual leader of Atlantis, and I want you to bond with this city_, and that will be enough?"

"Master shouldn't use such a general title. Master should have a strong title," Kreacher said. "And master should make the request less… crude."

"Less crude? I mean I shouldn't directly say _bond_?" Harry asked and Kreacher nodded. "How about something like _I want you to serve and take care of this city_?"

"That should work better master."

Harry nodded and frowned. "Alright. Now, a strong title…" he murmured, folding his hands as they walked. He already had a two and he didn't want to get another one. "Will Boy Who Lived or Chosen One do?"

"They should work, master," Kreacher answered, giving him a side ways look. "Kreacher thinks you should pick the latter one."

The wizard snorted with laughter. "I think you're right," he said shaking his head. "Few years and it won't even fit me anymore," he mused. "And Man Who Lived As A Boy just doesn't have the same ring… or would it be Man Who Twice Lived As A Boy… Actually I think it was way more than twice that I almost died. So… Man Who As A Boy Was Almost Killed Many Times?" he trailed away while Kreacher let out a sound which might've been a laugh. "Yeah, not exactly spiritual."

"Harry!" a female voice interrupted, it was Hermione who by the looks of it had been running. "Harry, wait!"

Harry did with slight feeling of concern. When Hermione ran and yelled it usually didn't mean anything good. "What can I do for you, Hermione?" he asked while watching her catch her breath.

"I just… heard from Kingsley that… you were going to bond the elves to Atlantis," she said, gasping slightly before straightening her back and glaring at him. "Harry, how could you?"

"Um…"

"Right now those elves are free, it's probably the first time they've been free in their entire life!" she started. "You can't bind them back into slavery just when they got free from it."

"Um, Hermione… the only reason those elves even agreed to come with us was because we promised them that they could be bonded back to servitude on the other side," Harry said. "And from what I've heard, the freedom isn't helping them any. Now, if they would be fine and healthy then of course we wouldn't need to bind them, but they're terrified of this place."

"And being _enslaved_ somehow helps?!"

"Elves need to be bonded to a property to be able to know it and serve it, mistress," Kreacher said slowly. "Freedom makes them weak. Makes them nervous."

"Oh, that's just that same old brainwashed bull--"

"Hermione!" Harry gasped in amused outrage. "Enough already. Look, I don't like the idea either, but the elves want it and looks like the longer they will be without the bond, the worse their nervousness will get. Besides, they won't be bonded to serve any person, per-se, but Atlantis itself. I think."

"But you will be binding them so they will be serving you," Hermione narrowed her eyes.

"Ah, no, as the spiritual leader of Atlantis I am absolutely not allowed to have servants," Harry said with a barely straight face. "It goes against my conviction." He almost cracked up at the look of horror Kreacher gave him. "We don't want the elves serve us, to be exact. We just want them to feel at home. Besides, we could use their help and right now they aren't being exactly helpful."

Hermione frowned before sighing and shaking her head. "Spiritual leader?" she then asked with disbelief.

"Kingsley's brilliant idea. I plan to torture him for it later on," Harry answered. "Apparently it needs to be a master or a leader who does the binding and as we don't have solid government and Kingsley's being all fair and just and not wanting to do anything without people's approval… So he figured that I'm the spiritual leader. I don't think anyone has approved that either, though."

The witch cracked a little grin. "Only you Harry."

"Screw you too, Hermione," Harry sighed. "You wanna come and watch?" he then asked hopefully. He didn't want to make an ass out of himself and Hermione was likely to prevent that. Maybe.

"Yes, I think I will," Hermione said, falling in step with him. "How is this going to work out, anyway? I don't know how an elf is bonded to a property."

"Kreacher says that I only need to say my name, my so called title and then ask the elves to do what we want them to do - help around Atlantis, and so forth," Harry explained. "We figured that Boy Who Lived and Chosen One are sort of like my titles. I'm going with the latter. It's tackier but makes a little more sense - and the Boy Who Lived has an expiration date coming up. And then I will be, what was it, the Man Who Almost Died Many Times But Never Managed To Get It Right?"

Hermione chuckled. "That's horrible," she said, shaking her head. "So is Chosen One."

"Well, it seems to be the better one of my silly titles, so…" Harry shrugged. "Unless you have a better one in mind. I'm open for suggestions."

The witch pursed her lips in thought. "Well, back when the whole Chosen One business started, I researched past prophesies and the ones who acted them out. The title is actually solid - its very old and almost official. The subjects of prophesies have been called Chosen Ones for as long as there has been prophesies…"

"Okay, so, Chosen One is more official than Boy Who Lived," Harry mused. "Well, I already knew it was the better title."

"Yes, but my point is that there is many translations of the title," Hermione said. "Like Corun Án, which is Old English for Chosen One."

"Sounds exotic. And much better than Chosen One - and it doesn't make it sound like I was picked in a goddamn lottery," Harry murmured and nodded. He could live with it and it was unlikely that the subject would ever come up after that day, so it was good. "Harry Potter the Corun Án it is!"

Hermione shook her head with amusement and chuckled. "Why are you walking there anyway you have been at the food storages before, haven't you? You should be able to Apparate."

"I needed the time to think and walking is good for you," Harry said, stretching his hands. "Also I've been helping people carry things all day and my back hurts a little. I'm trying to walk it off."

"Oh, yes, the moving. How did that go?"

"Well enough. We chose you an apartment in the same level where the Weasleys are staying - except for Bill who is of course staying with Fleur, and Charlie and George who wanted their own places."

"So, I'm in the same level as Ron, Ginny, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley? What level are you on?"

"At the top, apparently. Kreacher took the privilege of picking my place for me," Harry sighed heavily. "I'm probably going to have to move later on. The place he chose is too big for me."

"How big?"

"Fifteen rooms plus kitchen and four bathrooms big," Harry answered. She stared at him for a moment like not sure if she was supposed to berate him or laugh. "I didn't select it," Harry reminded. "Kreacher did. I wanted a nice small place, nothing too pretentious… Maybe with nice ocean view…" Hermione shook her head at him before starting to chuckle. "Oh shut up," the wizard muttered.

"Well, you can have lots of guests over, if nothing else," she said.

"And with us all living in the same building, that makes such a huge difference, yeah."

When they got to the place where most of the storage tents had been, they saw that most of them were gone. Mrs. Weasley had apparently been in middle of packing too before getting tired with the elves and heading off to complain about it to Kingsley. Harry could tell why. Two large boxes had fallen over and marble sized fruits had scattered all over the floor.

"Shrunken to save storage space, I guess," Hermione murmured while picking up a miniature banana bunch smaller the tip of her pinkie. "Magic can make such simple things look awfully cute."

Harry snorted in agreement while taking out his wand and with few waves repacking the shrunken fruits back into their crates. Then he looked around. He couldn't see a single house elf around, aside from Kreacher, but he had a feeling that there were at least few around. "Any elves here?" he asked in slightly raised voice. "I'm here to… um… make a request for you."

The first elf that appeared was a visibly trembling female elf, who popped half behind a food crate to hide from sight. "N-Nella is here," the elf stammered, staring at Harry with wide eyes. "What can Nella do f-for you?"

Harry eyed the terrified elf for a moment, reconsidering his approach. The elf was more nervous than he had expected. Sighing, he glanced at Hermione, nodding her to back up a little. As Hermione stepped few steps back, Harry crouched down to the floor before sitting down with his feet casually crossed. Then, with a soothing smile, he reached his hands out for the terrified elf to take.

"I'm Harry Potter, the Corun Án of Atlantis," he said, and the elves eyes widened slightly. The wizard just continued to smile, trying his hardest not to scare her. "Nella, I wish you to help us take care of Atlantis. It's your choice, you can decline," he added when he felt Hermione's glare drilling holes to the back of his head.

The house elf hesitated for a moment before throwing a look at Kreacher who was standing beside Harry. Then she took a hesitating step forward. When nothing happened, she took another and another before reaching her hands out. "N-Nella… will do as master Corun Án asks," she whispered as Harry grasped her small hands to his. "Nella will take care of Atlantis."

Harry felt a slight tingle of warmth in his hands, but ignored it in favour of staring at the elf in shock. The change in her was immediate and incredible. She seemed to go from terrified, frail creature into something prouder and stronger in a flash - and grow about head taller too. Harry blinked at the change before glancing between Kreacher and Nella. She really _had_ grown a head taller.

"That was…" Hermione murmured, stepping closer and crouching down. "What just happened?"

"Atlantis is a great place," the new Nella said, speaking in stronger, surer voice. "Nella feels privileged to serve such a great house. Nella will take good care of it and of the people living in it. Just as master Corun Án demands."

"…thank you Nella," Harry answered, feeling a bit bewildered. The longer he looked at her the less she looked like a normal house elf. Before he had the chance to see just how much she had changed or try and figure out why it had happened, she bowed almost gracefully from the waist and vanished without a sound. Turning to Hermione, he swallowed. "Did she just grow four inches in few seconds, or am I going mental?"

"Yeah, I saw it too. And did you see what happened to her body, to her face? What _was_ that?" Hermione murmured.

"A house elf is as great as the house she or he serves," Kreacher said thoughtfully. He too seemed surprised by the whole thing, but he also seemed to know what had caused it. "And Atlantis is the greatest house Kreacher has ever seen…"

Harry eyed him with surprise as realisation dawned to him. It also seemed to dawn to Hermione who gasped softly. "You mean house elves… draw some sort of power from the houses they're bonded with?" she asked with a small voice.

Kreacher gave her a flat look. "House elf without a house is weak," he said. "Hogwarts elves have been the strongest ones for centuries. Now the elves of Atlantis will be stronger than that." He was quiet for a moment before nodding to himself and turning his eyes to Harry. "If master would allow it, Kreacher would wish to be given clothes from the House of Black so that he too can become elf of Atlantis."

"Yeah… yeah, I think that can be arranged," Harry murmured, still feeling a bit shocked about the whole thing. Then he noticed that as soon as Nella had disappeared, the other elves had started to appear, hiding behind boxes and crates and eying him fretfully. "Kreacher, how many elves came with us from Hogwarts?"

"About four dozen, master.

"Oh. Oh I see," Harry muttered. Two dozen elves like Nella? Atlantis would be well taken care of with them around. He glanced at Hermione, but it seemed that the witch had lot to think about all of sudden. Shaking his head Harry turned his eyes to the nearest elf. He took a deep breath and offered the elf a smile. "What is your name?" he asked.

"Beddin," the elf almost whimpered, already taking a tiny step forward. "Will master Corun Án…? Can Beddin…? Beddin wants to serve Atlantis too."

Harry nodded and reached out his hands for the elf. "I am Harry Potter, the Corun Án of Atlantis," he repeated his earlier words. "Beddin, I wish you to help us take care of Atlantis. It's your choice, you may decline."

The elf didn't and neither did any of the others. The wonderful transformation the elves all went through when they accepted his offer didn't get any less amazing even after dozen times he saw it, if anything it seemed to get more spectacular. The elves all stopped looking like the gangly, pitiful creatures of before and started looking healthier, stronger, prouder and in some cases they turned almost beautiful. Their manners also changed with the transformation and before popping away, they all bowed at Harry.

"Old tales, older than Kreacher, older than the house of Blacks itself, say that elves used to be great. Taller and beautiful," Kreacher said while Harry undressed his robes so that he could give them to the elf and free him from the Grimmauld Place. "Kreacher never believed the tales."

"Why did they stop being beautiful?" Hermione asked quietly.

"The old forests were cut down, the magical forests," Kreacher drawled. "Elves started to lose power, started to grow small and weak… in order to survive they did many things, until finally they did this," he motioned at himself. "Bond their magic to properties, to houses. They thought they would survive like that, but in time they lost more than powers. They grew small and weak in mind and body. But Kreacher never believed the tales. Kreacher thought they were all lies."

"I guess in a long time no house elf has ever served a place bigger than… a castle maybe," Harry muttered while handing his rather tattered robes to the elf. "So no one ever really saw how strong they could get."

"They did it to themselves, so that they could… survive? B-but elves were free at first?" Hermione asked with a swallow. "They were free and beautiful and strong?"

"Because of the forests. The powerful forests," Kreacher murmured while accepting the robes from Harry and staring at them for a moment. "The forest of Hogwarts is all that remains of them and it was spoiled long ago."

"Spoiled with what?" Hermione asked confusedly.

"Dark magic, dark creatures. Predators. With their presence, the Forbidden forest turned dark and dangerous long time ago," another voice entered their conversation and looking up Harry saw that one of the centaurs had left the illusionary forest and had joined them. It was Firenze. "We could feel the change," the centaur explained. "You have bonded the elves to Atlantis. I came here in hopes of seeing the process but it seems I missed it."

"Hello, Firenze. We still have Kreacher left to bond, so you can still see the transformation," Harry said and turned to the elf. "That did the trick, right?" he asked, nodding at the robe.

"Yes. Kreacher… Kreacher is a free elf," the elf shuddered. "Kreacher doesn't like the feeling."

Harry nodded and extended his hands. He repeated the three sentences which he had said already more times than he cared to count. Immediately Kreacher dropped the robes to the floor and took Harry's hands. "Kreacher will do as master Corun Án asks," the elf quickly said. "Kreacher will serve Atlantis until Kreacher dies."

Kreacher was no doubt oldest of all the elves in Atlantis, and maybe it was because of that that his change ended up being the most magnificent of all. He grew taller, stronger and _younger_. Like with most elves who had gone through the transformation, his thin form seemed to fill out with flesh and muscle he had probably never had before. His loose skin tightened and turned healthier. He still remained elflike, just like most elves had, but in different way than before.

"Incredible," Firenze murmured, bowing his upper body to take a closer look at the elf. "Truly incredible."

"Feel better?" Harry asked from the new and improved Kreacher.

"Kreacher feels much better, master Corun Án," the elf nodded. He still had a hint of the old drawl left in his voice, but not all of it. Even that had been renewed. "Now if master Corun Án would permit it, Kreacher will go and continue making master's home suited for him."

"Alright," Harry nodded, now feeling a slightest bit of worry. After their transformation, all the elves had called him master Corun Án. That… had definitely not been what he had intended. "Though Kreacher, I'm not your master anymore. Not like before."

"Master Corun Án is master Corun Án," the elf said sternly before noticing Harry's robes on the floor. "Kreacher will get master a new set of robes. Kreacher will be right back," he said before popping away.

"Damn it," Harry muttered. "Don't tell me they're now going to call me that every time they talk to me."

"Well, it is your title, Harry Potter," Firenze said with a mild smile. "Even if you do not seem to agree with it, it has been your title since long before your birth.

"Like the Child of Stars?" Harry asked with a frown just as Kreacher popped back with a clean set of robes. "Thank you, Kreacher," he nodded and with a returning nod, Kreacher Dissapparated again. Sighing Harry turned his eyes back to Firenze while pulling the robes on. "Child of Stars is what you centaurs call me, isn't it? What does that one mean?"

"The same thing. A Child of Stars is a subject of a prediction read from the stars," the centaur said. "Like a Chosen One is the subject of a Prophesy. Like a Corun Án." The palomino's smile widened at the groan Harry made at the sound of it. "Now, Harry Potter, I believe that the planting of the gardens and vegetable fields has started," he mercifully enough changed the subjects. "Has it not?"

"Has it? I've been working in the apartments all day, I don't know," Harry said, and glanced at Hermione.

"Yeah, they were repairing the watering systems yesterday, and I think they finished it this morning," Hermione nodded. "Sprout started spreading the soil this afternoon. I don't know for sure, but I think they might've started the planting as well."

"We would wish to take part in it," Firenze said. "One area of the planting area is meant to serve as our habitat, is it not? Then is it only natural that we plant it the way we choose. We have the seeds, nuts and acorns of our former home forest with us and it is those seeds we wish to plant."

"Yeah, of course," Harry said, standing up from the floor with a huff. "I'll Apparate you down there - and then I think I'll help you with the planting." Little bit of physical work might just be enough to get the stupid Corun Án business from his mind. Why the hell had he agreed to the whole thing anyway? Oh yes, Kingsley. The man would pay for this.

"I'm going to head back, " Hermione said. "There are things I want to talk about with Kingsley."

"Alright. Tell him that when I get the chance I'm going to kill him in his sleep. Oh, and if you see Mrs. Weasley, tell her that the elves have been bonded and they should be more helpful now," Harry said.

Though she still seemed somewhat troubled about the whole house elf transformation thing, Hermione chuckled. "Alright, I'll let them know."

Apparating the centaurs to the pier was easier said than done. Harry had to make eleven trips back and forth to get them all, as he could only take two centaurs at the time and this time they all wanted to go. Only once he had transported all the rather bewildered seeming centaurs to the pier, he allowed himself to take in the changes which had happened there.

The lower area of the deck, the park area, had been filled out with dirt. It was different colour in different places so Harry assumed that Sprout had used different soil here and there. She had also separated large sections from each other, so she apparently intended to grow different things separate from one and another. Whether or not something had been planted yet was impossible to tell, though. All Harry could see was soil.

"Harry! Hey, I was wondering when you were going to show up," familiar voice called for his attention and glancing around Harry saw Neville walking towards him. "Checking out to see how the gardening is going?" The scarred wizard asked, glancing at the centaurs curiously.

Harry nodded. "That, and probably pitching in a little. You've been helping Sprout?"

"Yeah, me and few others who have any experience," Neville nodded. "You want to see her?"

"Yeah. She was supposed to save a spot for the centaurs."

"I think she's this way," Neville said, motioning to the direction he had came from. "She was planning the orchard the last time I saw her, so she should be there."

Harry nodded and glanced at the centaurs. Most of them were too busy enjoying fresh air and sunlight to even notice. "Will you guys wait here?" he asked. "I'll be right back."

"We will wait," Ronan nodded, his face turned up to the sky and eyes closed as he faced the sunlight.

"I see they're happy to get outside for a chance. They're not only ones either, lot of people have already offered to help around here," Neville said. "And some have just came to spend some time outside. We're thinking of adding some benches and stuff to the gardens and stuff like that eventually… not yet, of course. Getting the vegetables growing and the trees and bushes planted is bit more important right now."

Harry nodded, allowing his eyes wander over the soil. It didn't look quite natural with the soil being so fresh and the metallic walkways crossing it here and there, but it would probably look better once they would get stuff actually growing. "How long will it take before anything will grow here?"

"We have spells to speed up the process - and here and there we've planted saplings and seedlings instead of using just seeds," Neville said. "Sprout grew them in her tent in the last few days - and she has some sprouts which we will plant in few days or so. It should take only a few days before we start seeing some greenery around here."

"The soil, it's different colour here and there," Harry said. "I guess it has a meaning?"

"Well, of course not all plants manage in certain soils, so we've put as much variety as we could," Neville said. "Most of the planting area is sectioned. There for example we will be growing vegetables which need a different soil than most common medicinal herbs which we will grow over there. We're also thinking of adding a pool so that we can grow under water herbs and such."

Harry nodded and Neville continued to explain what they had been doing so far. It seemed that Sprout really knew what she was talking about when she had said that she'd be able to grow the food for all people in Atlantis in matter of weeks. "Seems like we're all going to be vegetarians then," he mused with a chuckle.

"I guess it's easier to go with that than sustaining meat production. We have chickens though, and the chicken coops will be set in the other side of the pier," Neville motioned. "Though I think they were brought with us for the eggs and not for the meat."

Harry nodded and looked up as they came into a part of the artificial field where someone had set up frameworks in several rows. "I guess something different is being grown here," he mused.

"The grape vines will be grown here, we haven't gotten around to planting the seedlings yet, though. The framework is just there to mark the section preserved for them," Neville said before motioning onwards. "And over there starts the fruit gardens. Lemons, oranges, apples, peaches and so on and so on. Bananas too if the climate is right. We don't know yet."

"I see we brought a lot of seeds with us," Harry muttered with amazement.

"Well, Sprout asked help from all her colleagues before we left and she had lot of them," Neville chuckled. "We don't have that many seeds though so we need to make the first growing count so that we can continue producing food… Oh, there she is. Professor Sprout!"

The Herbology professor was on her knees on the ground with few other witches and wizards - and Hagrid was apparently helping them by carrying boxes full of saplings. As they approached, the teacher and some of the helpers glanced up. "Mr. Potter. We've been wondering when you'd come," the Herbology professor said, brushing her hands together to clean them, before standing up. "I imagine you'd like to see the area preserved for the centaurs? We have some seeds and saplings ready for it but Hagrid suggested we should ask their opinion first."

Harry nodded. "They also brought some seeds with them, so it might be that they don't need any of yours," he said. "Where is the area? How big is it"

Sprout motioned at one direction in the inner part of the pier. "It's over there, in the shade of the buildings. It's obviously not extremely large, only about half a hectare because we simply don't have enough space for big forests. Right now the best we can do. We need rest of the space for food production."

"I'm sure they will understand and there are still five piers to be filled out, right?" Harry asked. "So, they can maybe have a bigger forest later on."

"Possibly," Sprout agreed. "Shall we go take a look?"

"I'd need to get the centaurs, they're the ones who want to look at it," Harry answered.

"I can get 'em Harry. Where are they?" Hagrid asked while setting down the box of seedlings. Harry pointed to the direction where he had Apparated the centaurs and with a nod the half giant set out to get the herd.

"So, you got everything working around here?" Harry asked as he and Sprout headed out to check the area meant for the forest. "The watering system and everything?"

"Yes. It took some tricky spell work, but thankfully Atlantis seemed to take repairing charms easily enough. Doesn't react at all like most of muggle technology," Sprout said happily. "Doctor Weir seems to think it has something to do with the city's power system, or something like that. She thinks that magic is similar to the energy the ancients used originally, and because of that Atlantis doesn't react negatively to magic."

"Well, that's certainly good," Harry mused, glancing around. He then asked to know what all were they growing and sprout launched into longer, detailed explanation of what Neville had already explained. Apparently aside from vegetables, herbs, fruits and such they were also crowing crops and grain. Sprout was also trying to grow some magical fungi but wasn't entirely positive that it was going to work - fungi was harder to grow than plants apparently.

The area preserved for the forest didn't look like much. It wasn't perfectly angular or perfectly circular, but more in oval shape in a open area in the middle of the pier there were buildings in it's both ends and around it sprout would be growing some mundane trees. "For Ollivander and all the others who need magicless wood in their work, you see," she explained. "We are also planting some magical trees here and there, but it's impossible to tell yet if they will settle in here."

Harry nodded and they continued to inspect the area. Not much later Hagrid arrived with the centaur herd, who seemed to immensely enjoy the feel of soil underneath their feet - even if that soil was still pretty soft and difficult to walk upon. Though the area was small, the centaurs surprisingly enough didn't complain. At all. Instead they looked around before sharing their acorns, seeds and nuts and whatever else they had with them, and starting to plant them into the soil.

"We can speed up the growth of the saplings with some spells," Sprout offered to them while Harry accepted a bag of acorns from one of the centaurs. "With them you should see some results already in few days."

"We would like that, professor, thank you," Ronan said.

It had been a while since Harry had worked in such large area doing stuff like that. Though of course he had learned in Herbology classes, he hadn't done actual planting in actual soil outside it, except for in the Number Four Privet Drive. Thankfully this was completely different - and not only because there was a little centaur foal walking beside him throwing seeds around her haphazardly. Unlike with the Dursleys, here Harry didn't need to even think of being orderly. It was still hard work because the centaurs wanted to make sure that the seeds were spread evenly and that at least most of them were under soil.

As the day went by and they continued planting, Harry noticed that more and more people came outside. Most of them joined the planting of seedlings all around the garden areas but some came out just to enjoy the sunlight and the breeze. Harry wasn't sure when it had happened, but by the time he and the centaurs were finally out of seeds, someone had set up tables and chairs into the bare metal areas of the piers and most people had gathered there to drink and eat.

"Harry dear, come and have a bite to eat," Mrs. Weasley called from the catering table when Harry reached the makeshift dining area. "We figured to have dinner together outside since most people seemed to be here. It is such a nice day too. Come, I'll fill a plate for you…"

It was less like dinner and more like spontaneous party. People were chatting loudly amongst them and Harry was sure he could hear someone trying the chords of a some sort of string instrument. And true enough, when he found himself a place to sit in the table with the Patils, someone started playing guitar, much to the delight of everyone.

"This is quite nice," Mrs. Patil murmured as people started clapping beat to the guitar player. The woman was looking at the fresh soil not far from them with a slight smile on her face - and by the state of her robes, Harry figured that the woman had been helping with the planting. "I can't wait to see what it will look like in month or so."

"Yeah," Harry agreed, glancing at the family of four. "You've settled down okay, right?" he asked.

"Oh yes. We got a nice apartment in the twentieth floor, with five bedrooms," Mr. Patil said. Unlike his wife who had English accent, he spoke in Indian one and probably wasn't completely British. "Parvati and Patil will no doubt want to move out soon, but we shall hold onto our little girls for little longer."

"I already wanted to get my own place but dad wouldn't let me," Parvati sighed mournfully but shot a smile at her parents to show she didn't really mean it. she looked at Harry. "You got your own place, right, Harry?"

"It was more or less chosen for me," Harry sighed. "I'm going to see if I can find a better place later on."

"Why, is the one selected for you too small?" Mrs. Patil asked.

"No, it's the opposite," Harry said. He and the Patils chatted a little about the apartments and their sizes and about what the gardens would look like. Then their attention was drawn away from the conversation to the people who had started dancing to the melody of the guitar in the other side of the crowd. Mrs. Patil was quick to grab her husband's hands and more or less drag the joyfully laughing man to the dance.

"I want to dance too," Parvati sighed before giving Harry a thoughtful look.

"Don't look at me. I have two left feet, and about the same sense of rhythm as tone deaf wall, and you know that," Harry said, lifting his hands in complete objection before she could get any bad ideas.

"True," Parvati sighed while. "I had to lead you most of the time, instead of other way around. The Yule ball was _horrible_." Padma seemed to agree completely.

"Sorry," Harry chuckled and looked up as he saw someone approaching them. "Hello, Lavender," he greeted the girl with Padma and Parvati. "I see your wounds are starting to heal."

"Yeah, a little," the girl agreed. She was wearing a simple summer dress that showed the angry red welts all around her arms and in her neck. It would've been almost grotesque if she hadn't been so casual about them. "They heal pretty slowly, but… weirdly enough I don't care," she shrugged her shoulders before turning her attention to Parvati and grinning. "The guys here are dull and boring and wouldn't know a melody from a fanfare. Wanna dance?"

Parvati blinked with surprise before grinning and bouncing to her feet. Harry and Padma watched them as they linked their hands and proudly marched to the area where the others were dancing.

"You know, Potter. I never really liked Lavender before. She was… stuck up and petty. Shallow," Padma murmured. "Bad influence on my sister. But the war changed her. She's… almost admirable now."

Harry followed the two girls as they clasped each other and started to dance a silly looking waltz while obviously trying not to burst into laughter. He smiled sadly. Even from afar, Lavender's scars were easy to see. "War changes everyone who gets close enough to be burned and scarred by it," he agreed quietly.

He knew that Lavender wasn't the only one with scars. Probably everyone who had spend even moment at Hogwarts had scars. Padma and Parvati both probably had scars - he had seen at least one of them being tended by Madam Pomfrey back in Hogwarts for a large burn mark in the back. People had just different ways of dealing with it. Some would never show their scars, some would be ashamed of them and some, like Lavender, were or eventually would be proud for them.

"Yeah. Yeah it does," Padma nodded and turned to look at him. "It changed you too, Potter," she said while standing up. "Now, excuse me, I think I shall try and find a non-tone-deaf male in the crowd."

"Good luck with that," Harry chuckled before turning his eyes to the dancers. Most of them were dancing in completely messed up ways and some weren't even trying to stay in rhythm but they seemed to have fun and so were the ones who were watching and clapping the beat. He smiled to himself and finished his water.

War might've changed all of them but maybe not all of the changes were negative ones.

"It makes a beautiful picture, doesn't it?" familiar voice interrupted his thoughts, Harry didn't even need to glance over his shoulder to know that it was Luna. "The laughter. I wish I had a camera."

Harry raised his eyebrows at her before turning to look at the dancers again. They were mostly laughing. Only few dancers were even taking their dance seriously, most were fooling around to their or their viewer's amusement. They had a beautiful backlight too, as sunset set in the other side of Atlantis, painting the city orange, red and yellow. It was beautiful.

"Yeah," Harry agreed with a soft chuckle of his own. "This would make a nice picture." He glanced at the blonde girl. "What's up, Luna?"

"The sky," she answered serenely and chuckled at the look he gave her. "You know, people will want to start relaxing from now on. And you know what people do when they relax?" she smiled as he shook his head. "They talk. They talk about the weather because it affects everyone. They talk about family matters because it affects those closest them. And they talk about people not close to them because it doesn't touch them. But you know what they won't talk about?"

Harry snorted mirthlessly. "The things they really should," he answered.

She smiled. "They will need someone to talk to," she said.

"We don't have a counsellor, Luna," Harry sighed. "Nor a mind healer. And I doubt we have anyone willing to become one either. Trust me, I've checked."

The girl gave him a meaningful look. "I think there's one person you haven't checked," she answered. "We already have a counsellor, Harry, and even if he isn't trained or learned, he cares enough for it not to matter. But he hasn't opened his doors for those seeking help, yet. Mostly because he hasn't yet realised that people would talk to him, if he just would."

Harry frowned. "Who?" he asked.

"Why, you of course," she answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world, before turning around and heading away with cheerful skip in her steps.

Harry stared after her with complete befuddlement for a moment. Was she insane? He wasn't fitting to help anyone with their personal problems - he had so many of them that _he_ needed a counsellor himself! He probably would cause more problems whilst trying to help than he would actually help at all! Besides he knew absolutely nothing about psychology, nothing about mental health.

And yet some tiny voice in back of his head which sounded suspiciously like Dumbledore assured him that sometimes it didn't matter if you didn't know what you were doing - as long as you did it. The results would speak for themselves.

x

The apartment Kreacher had selected for him was really the one of fifteen rooms - and even if three of them were sort of living rooms, there was still fifteen of them. By the Harry saw the place first time, Kreacher had already furbished the place with the tall shelves, cabinets, couches, armchairs, carpets, curtains and such from Grimmauld place. He had gone even so far as to furbish most of the bedrooms, and had added a dining table fitting for over dozen people.

"What do you think, master Corun Án?" the house elf asked more proudly than nervously when Harry cautiously inspected his penthouse apartment. "Kreacher did his best trying to make all the rooms nice and furbished. There is still six rooms without beds, but Kreacher got carpets and curtains for them…"

"It's.. it's fine. Is all this stuff is really from Grimmauld Place?" Harry asked, glancing into one of the room with slightly wide eyes. From his inspection in the previous day he remembered that few of the bedrooms were bigger than others. This one was one of them - and Kreacher had obviously furbished it for him, judging by the king sized bed and the fact that the wardrobe was hung with Harry's robes.

"Yes, master," the elf nodded. "Kreacher repaired some of them and improved others. Also, Kreacher got a new mattress for master's bed from the storages that came from Hogwarts…" the elf trailed away and looked at him. "Does master Corun Án like it?"

"Stop calling me that, I'm not your master anymore, Kreacher. You're elf of Atlantis now, not mine," Harry said distractedly. "It's… it's not bad at all," he added. It was actually pretty nice. The colouring of the furniture was maybe little darker than he would've liked and the fact that they came from Grimmauld Place sort of made him like them a little less than he otherwise would've, but other than that… "It could use maybe some candles," he added.

"But master's apartment has plenty of lights," Kreacher said, glancing at the ceiling and the walls where lights had been imbedded into the walls so nicely that they were practically decorations.

"It's not about lightning. I've just gotten adjusted to having candles around," Harry shrugged. In Hogwarts everything had been lit by candles or torches, and he had grown to like that. In the last year, during the long run, he had also missed that. "Do we have any candles?"

"We should, master Corun Án… Kreacher can also duplicate them if Corun Án wants Kreacher to," the elf said tentatively.

"Duplicate?" Harry asked, turning his eyes to the elf. "You can do that? Duplicate items?"

"Yes. Kreacher can do it. Now," the elf added. "Kreacher couldn't do it before."

"You mean you've gotten new powers after being bonded to Atlantis?" Harry asked while sitting down to nearby armchair. The elf nodded, making Harry's eyes widen slightly. "Duplication magic," he murmured. "That could be interesting power to have. What else - have you noticed any other powers you might've gained?"

"Kreacher isn't sure yet, but Kreacher thinks that all elves in Atlantis are growing stronger magically," the elf said. "They can do more then they could before. Kreacher will tell Corun Án if he notices any new powers he might've gained."

"I appreciate that," Harry nodded. "Where… where are you staying at Atlantis? And what about the other elves?"

"The elves are staying near the Dining Hall Mrs. Weasley is setting up - Mrs. Weasley arranged them a place there. Mr. Shacklebolt said that elves can have apartments for themselves if they want to, though, so some elves are looking around for places where they might wish to stay…" the elf trailed away. "Kreacher thinks he would like to say near Corun Án."

"You want to stay with me?" Harry asked. "And stop calling me that. You were calling me Harry before."

"Corun Án is Corun Án, and that is how Kreacher will address him," the elf said stubbornly. "And yes, Kreacher wishes to remain here with him and take care of him."

The wizard eyed the elf for a moment before sighing. "Alright, if you want to. There's certainly enough room. Just pick one you like and… do whatever you want," he said, rubbing his hand over his eyes. "I think I'll turn in," he said. He had been doing physical labour most of the day and he was dead tired.

"Kreacher wishes Corun Án good night. Kreacher will also remain nearby in case Corun Án needs him."

"Thank you Kreacher," Harry nodded and sighed as the elf popped away. With a groan he sat up and headed for the bedroom which was apparently his. While falling asleep in the most comfortable mattress he had slept in for over a year, he hoped the world would make more sense after he would've gotten some sleep.

Sadly enough, after only few hours of it, he was awoken by Kreacher. "Master Corun Án has a visitor," the elf said after shaking Harry awake. While the wizard groaned and cursed the fact that universe apparently wasn't willing to let him sleep properly, the elf readied a robe for him. "It's mistress Tonks and little master Lupin."

"Andromeda and Teddy?" Harry asked, blinking his bleary eyes until he could see something. Then, figuring that the woman probably wouldn't appear to his doorstep unless it was emergency, he grabbed his glasses, pulled on the robe Kreacher offered him, and headed out of his bedroom, Kreacher following closely behind him.

"Take him, please, just… for a moment, take him from me," the woman said immediately after Harry had found her pacing up and down his living room. She was holding screaming Teddy too tightly in her arms, her eyes little too wild for comfort. "Take him from me!"

"Alright, alright." Still slightly bleary eyed and still not completely awake, Harry did as asked and took the baby to his arms. While trying to rock the boy and calm him down, he gave the woman a worried look. "What's going on Andromeda? Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong. Yes it is. I don't know!" the woman snapped irritably, wiping her eyes angrily and continuing to pace along the length of the living room. "It's just that sometimes… sometimes it's hard. Everything here is so perfect now. We're growing food, we have shopping street, the city is beautiful, everything is do Merlin damned perfect!"

Harry eyed her cautiously but didn't say anything, just rocked Teddy who wasn't showing any signs of quieting down.

"A-and I'm… I'm trying to fit in, we all are. But I don't understand this muggle stuff most of the time - I'm a pureblood, raised in completely magical environment. Even Ted couldn't make me understand things like cars and such, I still don't! This city… sometimes I don't like it at all - and I'm not the only one, let me tell you, lot of people here probably agree with me," Andromeda muttered, staring angrily at the floor as she continued to walk. "We can't understand it. We just can't…"

Without any warning her face seemed to crumble. Biting her lip she almost got the expression under control but the tired grief still remained there. "I-I'm not young anymore, Harry. Well, maybe I'm not as old as some, I'm only forty five, that's pretty young for a witch, but I'm not… I'm not young enough to learn to be something I'm not. I'm not young enough to, to… to adjust. I don't react well to changes. I never have. I hate them. I hate changes…"

She sniffled angrily and wiped her tears again while Harry continued to watch her cautiously. "I'm not like Nymphadora," she finally wailed. "I'm not like Ted either. They were both so… so, amendable. So flexible. They liked new things and, and I don't, and… and I'm…"

As the woman stopped pacing suddenly and fell to sit in one of Harry's couches, the wizard carefully stepped closer. "I'm sorry," the woman sniffled, trying to stop her tears from falling. "I'm just so tired - and Teddy, he's the sweetest baby but he wakes so often during the night, and… and every time he does I remember Dora and Ted and they aren't here - oh god, why aren't they here… why did they have to… they were the kindest people I know, so much kinder than me, why did they…?"

Harry sat beside the woman and tentatively reached out to touch her shoulder. Andromeda didn't seem like the one for hugs so he just held his hand there while rocking Teddy carefully with the other. "Everyone's having problems adjusting to life here," he said softly. "You aren't the only one."

"You certain don't seem to have any!" the woman almost snarled, taking a deep breath and drying her face with the palms of her hand. "You always seem calm. God, it pisses me off at times."

"That's because I'm good at repressing my problems, which in the end might be more of a problem than a good thing," Harry shrugged with a sad smile and squeezed her shoulder before looking up to Kreacher who was still standing near by watching them. "Kreacher, could you go and make Andromeda a cup of tea? And get a bottle for Teddy, please."

"Yes, Corun Án, right away," the house elf said.

"What the hell did that elf just call you?" Andromeda asked almost angrily, though it was probably because of her brief breakdown than because of anything else. "And did you just call him Kreacher? Surely that's not the wretched house elf from Grimmauld Place."

"Actually he is, but never mind that. He's not the issue here," Harry answered, giving the woman a look. He didn't say anything until Kreacher returned with the requested items. While leaning back to feed Teddy, Harry watched how Kreacher made a cup for Andromeda who just stared at it for a moment before taking a drink. Thankfully teddy quieted down after Harry offered him the teat and his crying no longer made the atmosphere more tense than it already was.

"I guess this is more about your family than it's about Atlantis," Harry carefully noted. "You obviously miss them very much. Your husband and Nymphadora."

"Of course I miss them, they were my family," Andromeda muttered irritably. "Greater family than the one I was born into, that's for sure…"

Harry regarded her for a moment, taking in the look of aching grief on her face. For a long time he wasn't sure how to continue. "I didn't get to know them well enough. Tell me about them," he then said tentatively. "Tell me how you and Ted met."

She was quiet for a moment, staring at her tea for a long while. Then she glanced at him as if to see if he was actually seriously asking. Harry said nothing, merely raised his eyebrows in expectation and nodded her to start. And eventually she did.

Harry listened and tried to press all she said into his mind. She told that she had been in Slytherin whilst Ted had been in Hufflepuff. She hadn't even known he existed until the final year when Ted had approached her to ask her for a date. At that time Andromeda had started rebelling against her family and it was more because of that rebellious stage than any other reason that she has agreed to go out with Ted Tonks.

"But he proved out to be the sweetest man I've ever met," the woman smiled through painful tears. "Everything a Black woman should not appreciate. He was soft and kind and foolish in that endearing way… I don't know. I had been raised to appreciate strength and power and might and… and I fell for him just like that," she snapped her fingers. "I've never figured out quite why I loved him so much… but I did. I really did. I was so bad at expressing it, Merlin, most of the time I probably acted like I hated him, but he understood. He really did…"

She explained the expulsion from her family and how, despite the fact that she had been raised to think that it was the most horrible thing that could happen, very little had made her as happy as that. "Of course I was freshly married, that might have something to do with it," she snorted sadly before looking and smiling a slightly evil smile. "And when I had Nymphadora… oh, that took the cake."

"Why so?" Harry asked curiously.

"Well, for one, Bellatrix was found infertile the same year," Andromeda smiled widely. "And for two, Nymphadora inherited the family pride. She was a metamorphmagus. Long ago it was the pride of the Black family, you see, the metamorph abilities, but they hadn't been seen in decades, in centuries. And my little half blood daughter inherited it! It was like slap at the face of my former family!"

Her laugher died down into a sad smile. "She was beautiful. Different colour every time I saw. Red hair, yellow hair, pink hair, orange hair… all the colours of cheerfulness. And she was a cheerful baby. Laughing and screaming - of course Ted was a wonderful father, always playing with her… she wasn't like a Black child at all…"

She swallowed and fell silent. "I miss them," she finally said. "So very much. People always say that parent's shouldn't outlive their children… they really shouldn't… Merlin, she was only twenty five, so young… too young."

Harry watched her for a moment in silence. "You know, it's easy. Dying I mean. Quicker and easier than falling asleep," he said softly. "And the dead… they aren't as unhappy as you might think. Dead is not the end for them, not for any of us. Hell, they're probably having better time in the After Life than we're having here…" he shook his head. "And trust me when I say this, you will see them again. It might take ten years, fifty, hundred… but eventually…"

She gave him a thoughtful look and then snorted. "I suppose you would know," she said quietly. "Did you really die at Hogwarts? People say you did."

Harry thought about it. "Well, I never really reached Afterlife, but I could've if I had chosen to - and trust me, it was tempting," he said and leaned back with a sad smile. "I went into a… limbo of sort. It all probably happened inside my head, but it was still perfect. Painless, beautiful, my thoughts becoming reality… I still sometimes wonder what it would've been like if I had gone onwards, sometimes I almost wish I had gone too."

Andromeda eyed him for a moment before turning her eyes to her tea cup again. "You say it like death is better than living."

"It probably is. But life is unique and precious - a once in lifetime experience which should be enjoyed to the fullest," Harry said and smiled down to Teddy, who was now deep asleep in his arms. "Death and those who have died will wait for us living," he murmured and glanced up. "Kreacher, do we have a cradle in here?"

The house elf, who had stayed around watching them, nodded. "Yes, several. Does Corun Án wish Kreacher to set one for little master?"

"Yes. Put it in my room," Harry said, and as the elf popped away he looked down to Andromeda. "You can take one of the other rooms for tonight if you want. Kreacher has furbished most of them so at least few should be liveable. I'll look after Teddy tonight and tomorrow so that you can get a good night's rest. Okay?"

"Yes… yes alright," Andromeda nodded. "Before you go, though, I want to know… what the hell is that elf calling you?"

"It's just a misunderstanding," Harry rolled his eyes. "Kingsley had me bind the elves to Atlantis, and to do that I had to have official title. Hermione suggested Corun Án, which is Old English for Chosen One. I wouldn't have used it if I had known that the elves would keep calling me that afterwards," he sighed.

The woman chuckled. "Another title for great Harry Potter, huh?"

"The great Harry Potter would do without any of them," Harry answered, shaking his head. "Will you be alright, Andromeda?"

"Yes… yes, I will be. I think I will have another cup of tea and think some things through… and then I'll go to bed," the woman said and offered him a crooked smile. "I should be fine after good night's sleep."

"Well, good night to you, Andromeda," the wizard nodded while standing up. "I'll be in that room if you'll need be - and Kreacher will probably help you with anything you need."

"Thanks, Harry. And good night."

Harry nodded, casting final look at the woman before turning around and heading to his own bedroom. Andromeda wasn't woman to be coddled, nor one who would open up easily. She was the sort who kept her problems inside and solved them internally. Pretty much like Harry himself.

"You got rather poor set of guardians," Harry mused while setting slumbering Teddy to a cradle Kreacher had already set beside his bed. After gently tucking the boy in, Harry sat to the edge and just eyed the boy for a moment. "No need to worry though. Grandma needs some time to herself but I think she will be alright," he finally said.

"Does Corun Án need something else?" Kreacher asked quietly, appearing to the doorway.

"No. Look after Andromeda for me, though, and make sure she doesn't do anything… stupid," Harry said, feeling somewhat relieved that they shouldn't have any alcohol around. "Make sure she gets to bed at some point too, alright?"

"Kreacher will do as Corun Án asks," the elf nodded and disappeared, leaving Harry alone with his sleeping godson. The wizard eyed the place where the elf had stood for a moment before sighing and settling down underneath the covers of his bed.

"Yeah," he murmured sleepily and yawned. "Maybe we will all be alright. In time we will all be alright…"

x

My apologies for possible grammar errors and such. If you notice any which are glaringly obvious, feel free tell me so that I can correct them.


	5. V, Healing

**V chapter**

The following day Harry was woken by Teddy who seemed to be early riser and definitely not a morning person, which was rather explosive combination. After short nightmare of nappy change and feeding - Kreacher helped a lot there thankfully - Harry managed to get his month old godson to calm down, at least enough to dare a venture out of his room. Thankfully it seemed that Andromeda, who had taken the room directly next to Harry's, hadn't woken up.

"I'm going to take a walk," Harry said to Kreacher who was now tidying Harry's bedroom. "I'll have a breakfast at the Dining Hall. Let Andromeda sleep as long as she like and once she does wake up, get her something to eat, alright? Tell her I'll be looking after Teddy today so that she won't have to worry."

"I'll do as you ask, Corun Án," Kreacher nodded before turning back to tidying Harry's bed. With a nod of his own, Harry headed out of his much too large apartment and into the corridor of the Apartment building's top floor.

He wasn't the only one awake. Two boys under Hogwarts age were racing up and down the corridor while their parents used the corridor as a place to figure out their furniture. They hadn't apparently moved in completely yet, or were one of the many families who were furbishing with some furniture that had been taken from Hogwarts.

"Good morning," Harry greeted them.

"Mr. Potter," the father of the family said with a surprise. "I didn't know you lived in this floor."

"Yeah. I sort of ended up in the apartment at the end of the corridor," Harry nodded towards the doorway of his apartment. "Do you need a hand?" he asked, glancing down to the furniture which was haphazardly scattered along the corridor.

The wizard gave Teddy a look and smiled. "You look like you already have your hands full, if you don't mind me saying. And I'm sure we'll manage," he said. "I am Lucas Spinnet and this is my wife Melissa," the man nodded at his wife. "I think you played Quidditch with our daughter."

"Oh, you're Alicia's parents," Harry nodded. He could see the family resemblance now. Alicia had inherited her mother's face and her father's eyes and hair. "Yeah, I played with her. Alicia makes a wicked Chaser."

"So we've heard," Melissa Spinnet laughed. Then, in move which rather resembled one of her daughter's Quidditch moves, she caught the two sprinting boys mid run and pulled them to her side. It was only then Harry realised that they were so close to each other's age that they either were only year apart from each other - or twins. "These are our sons, Alicia's little bothers. Mathias, Adrian, say hi to Harry Potter. He's living in the same floor as we are."

The boys looked up in unison and gasped. "Are you really Harry Potter?" one of them asked. "Do you have the scar?"

"Mathias!"

Harry chuckled. "It's alright, Mrs. Spinnet," he assured while smiling down to the boy. For some reason hearing that question from a boy who seemed less than eight years old was less insulting than it would've been if an adult had asked it. "Yes, Mathias, I do have the scar."

"I wanna see it!" the other boy, Adrian demanded. "It's on your forehead, right? Your hair is on the way! Can you move it aside?"

While the boys' parents looked absolutely horrified by their sons' behaviour, Harry just laughed and crouched to the floor. "I have my hands a little full," he said, nodding towards Teddy who was currently preoccupied with his thump. "So if you want to --" before he had finished, Adrian Spinnet had moved forward and pushed his hair aside so that he could see the scar. Harry chuckled. The boys were Gryffindors for sure.

"Wicked," the boys murmured in unison. "Does it hurt?"

"Nope," Harry grinned. "It's just an old cut now," he said while standing up again. He turned to look the two elder members of the Spinnet family. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Mr. and Mrs. Spinnet - and you too, Mathias and Adrian. If you need anything, you know where I live - and if I'm not here, my house elf will most likely be there."

"We'll keep that in mind," the Spinnets nodded, smiling rather confusedly at him. "Also, if there is anything we can do around here, we'll be happy to do our share of the work," Mr. Spinnet added. "I am not sure what we can do, but if there is anything…"

"I'm sure we can find jobs for everyone in here," Harry assured. "There's lot to be done - probably more than we even know yet." With a final nod of parting, Harry turned to continue down the corridor, wondering what the Spinnets did for living. He should've asked. Actually, someone should make list of all the people and their occupations, and talents so that everyone could be found jobs.

Well, there was time for that now that they had both power and they would most likely have food growing soon.

Aside from the spinets, others either weren't awake yet, hadn't ventured out their houses or had already left, because Harry didn't encounter anyone on his way to the transporter. He did glance into the lounge area nearest to the transporter, but it didn't even have furniture in it, not to mention about people. Shrugging his shoulders Harry continued to the transporter and once inside selected the tower where the Dining Hall was.

Unlike the lounge area in the top floor of the apartment building, the Dining Hall was completely furbished. Long tables had been set here and there, each fit for about dozen people. Harry had a feeling that they were the tables which had formerly been in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, but he couldn't tell for sure. Some of the tables had already even been decorated by table cloths and flower vases, though most of the flowers in them didn't seem alive.

There weren't too many people there, but the hour was pretty early. While glancing around and wondering how and where he was supposed to get the food, the only table with occupants noticed him. Kingsley, whom Harry hadn't seen at first, waved at him and motioned him to join them. "Morning, Harry. You're up early."

"Teddy woke me up. And good morning," Harry answered, looking around in the table curiously. The people sitting with Kingsley were mostly adult witches and wizards he didn't know.

"I didn't know Harry Potter had a kid," one of the men in the table grinned slightly. "But then, you've been hiding all last year, right? Who knows what you've been up to, huh?"

"I was running around mostly, actually," Harry said calmly. "And Teddy's my godson," he added while sitting down to the space the men sitting next to Kingsley made for him. "His grandmother is usually takes care of him but I'm babysitting him today."

"I see," the man snorted and then motioned at himself. "I'm Darrel Dervis, by the way, from Dervish and Banges."

"Nice to meet you," Harry nodded and then glanced at the others. He was given similar introductions, though only one other in the table was a shopkeeper - Oscar Jiggers from Slug and Jiggers. The rest, Annie Hall, Daniela Symons and Edward and Lorie Dawson, were just tradesmen and women.

"We were just talking about the Meditation Hall and about jobs in general," Kingsley said.

"Meditation Hall is where the shopping street will be put up, right?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. And it has room for about twenty four shops. Of course currently we don't even have that many, but that wasn't actually the issue we were talking about," Kingsley mused, glancing around. "It was more about how we're going to deal with the fact that we don't have access to materials and supplies people need to continue in their trades.."

"Not everyone brought enough with them to last for long," Annie Hall, who was a metal-charmer and single mother of first year student from Hogwarts, said thoughtfully. "I managed to bring some, but it won't last me for more than year or so even if I engorge it all - which damages to quality a little - and then I will have no gold or silver to work with."

"And some of us don't have any supplies at all - we had to leave in bit of a hurry," Edward Dawson, parent of a Hogwarts student as well, murmured. "And we're stranded in middle of an ocean with limited supply of… of everything. The only thing we might be able produce are plants."

"And some animals," a voice joined them as a formidable looking woman walked towards them. She was the woman from Magical Menagerie, though Harry didn't know her name. "But they're mostly pets. And they'll remain only if I get them to reproduce. Some of them are pretty stressed about this whole thing that I'm not even sure if they'll survive not to even mention about breeding."

"Either way, our resources are limited," Kingsley said. "Professor Sprout is certain that with current state of things, we will eventually be able to produce slightly more crops than we need, so we don't have to worry about food. However we do not have access to new materials, and those us in business of making things for living have no way of making new products…" he nodded at the craftsmen and women around him. "It's going to cause problems sooner or later."

Harry blinked at the dark looks people were sharing. "Then recycle," he said and raised his eyebrows when everyone looked at him. "Take apart an old thing, then make a new thing out of it."

"It's not quite that easy, Mr. Potter," Hall said with a frown. "I for one need pure uncontaminated metal. I make magical jewellery, you see, and no random scrap metal will do."

"And I need fabric, I need wool. And we don't have any sheep around, do we?" Daniela Symons asked.

"I need leather!"

The other had similar demands, all which Harry answered with a slight frown. "For precious metals, melt down coins. They're pure, aren't they? And it's not like we're using them. For fabric, take apart old clothes and make new ones out of them. For leather, make fake leather. Muggles figured out a way, I'm sure magic can make it even more easily than they do," he said.

"But if we melt down our galleons and sickles and knuts, what will we barter with?"

"With more material maybe?" Harry asked, shrugging his shoulders. "Old items for new ones so that you can take the old ones apart and make new ones out of them. It can't be that hard."

"That's hardly enough payment for a good tradesman's work," Mr. Dervish murmured.

"Not on Earth, maybe. But we're not on Earth, are we? Even if someone was able to pay you gold, what could you do with it? You can't buy fresh materials since no one has them. But you can melt the gold down and use it to make new products. Which can just as well be done by taking old device and taking it apart - that way you'd get more materials too."

He looked around. "You know, probably only very few brought money with them. I for one probably don't have more than handful of coins with me and I don't even know where they are. There aren't that many of us for that anyway, so trying to set up economy which is based on money…" he trailed away and shook his head. "It won't turn out well. Eventually all the gold will be in the hands of shop keepers and tradesmen who can't spent them on anything. And then how people will buy their products?"

"He has a point," Lorie Dawson murmured, glancing at her husband. "There's only few hundred people here. And we don't have to pay for anything - food, water, living, it's all free. For what purpose would we be making money anyway, since there is nothing we can spend it on, except on the products we ourselves make?"

The others nodded as the understanding dawned. Kingsley shot a look of appreciation at Harry who just shrugged. "How are you supposed to get food around here anyway?" Harry asked. "I'm starving."

"Are you hungry, master Corun Án?" voice asked directly behind Harry, making him almost jump. "I can get you anything you wish to eat."

"Nella?" Harry asked, glancing around to see the first of the house elves he had bonded. "Don't ever pop up like that without warning. What is it with people and trying to give me a heart attack?" he asked, making the elf bow her head in shame. "Ack, none of that, I didn't… never mind. Just get me something to eat, would you, Nella? And maybe a cup of tea?"

"Of course, master Corun Án. I will be right back," the elf nodded and popped away.

"Master Corun Án?" Kingsley asked with a chuckle. "Hermione told me, but I didn't quite…"

"Shut up Kingsley, it's your fault anyway," Harry growled at him, before realising something. he straightened his back. "Did Nella just…? Hey, Kreacher did it too…"

"Did what?"

"They spoke properly, like people usually do. Both of them used personal pronouns," Harry blinked. "Huh. I guess physical change wasn't the only benefit they got," he mused, wondering if the bond with Atlantis was now improving the mental states of the elves as well. He grinned suddenly. He couldn't wait for Hermione to witness that particular change.

"Well, anyway… do you think you could manage your trades by recycling everything?" Kingsley turned his attention back to the tradesmen and women. "With our little society being as little as it is, and all our basic needs met, none of you actually need to work for living. It will be more like… working for the sake of working."

"We could work not because we have to but because we want to," Annie Hall murmured. "Now there's an interesting thought… To be an artist rather than a tradeswoman…" she smirked at the others around her. "Oh, I doubt any of you became what you are because of the _money_. If it was money, you wouldn't be trades people. You would be politicians."

The people in the table snorted softly while Harry turned his attention to tray that appeared before him. It was loaded with much more food than he actually could eat, making him sigh softly. He really need to have a word with the house elves about this whole master Corun Án business. They were supposed to be rationing food, not wasting it.

Although, if all elves were getting the ability to duplicate things, then… then that might change things quite bit. Harry frowned in thought while balancing Teddy carefully in one arm and tucking into his food with his free hand. He needed to talk about that with the elves too - to find out the limits of their duplicating abilities. Because if they could all duplicate perfect everlasting copies of everything, then that could solve the problem of work materials for the traders. Of course the duplicates might be just temporary. Some magic was.

"We need to set up a council for all the trades people," Oliver Jiggers mused. "Or a guild. Traders guilt. To make sure that everyone will get their share of recourses…"

"Actually, we should hold meeting of some sort so that everyone can say what they need and want and their opinions about these matters," Annie Hall said determinately. "Lot of the shopkeepers aren't here."

"We should also make a list about everyone who has occupation or any sort of experience in one," Harry added. "People here might not need to work in order to survive now that we have the gardens growing, but I bet lot of them _want_ to. I certainly don't want to spend the rest of my life doing nothing."

"You already have a job, master Corun Án," Kingsley answered with a grin.

Harry glared at him, wondering if it was possible to check if a person was possessed. He was almost certain that Fred had lodged himself somewhere in Kingsley and was now giving the man a very bad sense of humour. "I'm serious."

The Auror chuckled and looked up. "I will try and arrange a meeting which all the artisans can attend. We need to find a place to hold it and make sure that everyone who needs to be can be present, so it might take time to arrange it, but I will make sure to let everyone know when and where it takes place," he said, getting back to business. "In the meanwhile try and see if recycling works, if you can use alternative materials and so forth. Be creative and use what you have sparingly."

The people in the table nodded in agreement. Some of them left while others moved respectively to other tables to talk amongst themselves, leaving Harry alone with Kingsley. "Did Hermione tell you I'm going to kill you?" Harry asked casually while gathering some porridge into his spoon. "Because I am. It's going to be sudden and painful."

"Of course it is," Kingsley nodded with a grin and glanced down to his tray. "I see the elves are giving you special treatment now."

"I'll talk to them about it," Harry assured and glanced at the man. "The Meditation Hall has been approved for the shopping street then?"

"Yeah. Some of the shop keepers inspected it and they seem to think it's just perfect, even if it's all indoors," Kingsley said. "I visited it briefly yesterday, it's really magnificent place. It's probably going to be pretty popular too once they get the shopping street up and running."

Harry nodded. "That's good," he mused. "Is Three Broomsticks going to be stationed there too?"

"Probably, though we're not yet sure how the bar is going to operate. Sprout seems to think that she can grow enough of vegetables, fruits and grapes and such needed for someone to start a brewery, and if it does work out like that… well, time will tell. It might be that Three Broomsticks will become place of lot of free rounds," Kingsley mused with a chuckle while reaching out and stealing a piece of fruit from Harry's tray. "This place will get pretty interesting before long."

"I think it's already interesting enough," Harry answered and glanced up at the sound of steps heading their way. "Good morning, Elizabeth," he greeted the elderly woman.

"Morning Harry, Kingsley," the woman beamed down to them while sitting down. She glanced down to Harry's tray. "Is that porridge?" she asked curiously before glancing up. "I'd like some porridge, piece of bread and glass of water, please," she said. Few seconds later the requested items appeared before her. "Thank you."

"Ooh, so that is how it works," Harry mused, swearing to keep it in mind. The less interaction he had with the elves in public, the better.

"I love magic. It makes things so easy around here," the muggle woman smiled widely while tucking to her food. "I see you're babysitting again, Harry."

"Yeah. I decided to give Andromeda a day off," Harry answered without elaborating. Andromeda's problems were her own, he wasn't about to spread them around. "Did you like the apartment we chose for you?" he asked instead. "Oh, and did Ginny get you any furniture?"

"Yes, she got me everything I need for now," Elizabeth nodded. "I'll need some time to decorate before I will feel completely at home there, but the apartment seemed nice enough."

"What are you intending to do today, Doctor Weir?" Kingsley asked curiously.

"I'm probably going to keep on teaching Hermione," she laughed. "That girl has bottomless stomach for information. The moment I've finished explaining some system to her, she is already asking questions about half dozen more."

"That's Hermione for you," Harry mused.

"Hmm… We should probably arrange more people to come listen to you," Kingsley mused. "The more people learn, the better. In the end I'd want at least most of us know how to operate this city."

"Well, they can operate the transporters now," Harry said.

"That's a start, but it won't get us far."

Elizabeth nodded in agreement. "Everyone likely to learn is welcome to join me. There are however some systems even I don't know about. Great amount of them had been shut down by the time I joined the ancients - things they didn't need in the war. Others I never either got access to or no one had the time to teach me. Or I simply wasn't able to operate them."

"Why not?"

"Over half of Atlantis's systems work on mental control," Elizabeth said and Harry and Kingsley just gave her confused looks, she sighed. "You haven't noticed it either, huh? It's a sort of safety mechanism the ancients long ago incorporated into their technology. I don't know exactly how it works, but if you have a specific gene - which all the ancients carried of course - you can operate some of their technology by thought alone. Now, some of ancients systems work by buttons and so forth, but not all of them. Those that work mainly on mental control… Well, I can't operate those. I don't have the gene."

"I'm sure we would've noticed if that actually happened here," Kingsley frowned.

"Well, its hard to tell where the automatic systems end and where the mental controlled ones begin," Elizabeth said. "Also, half of the manual systems are also incorporated with mental components. And as far as I can tell… each wizard and witch either has the gene naturally, or something about your magic mimics it. Otherwise you would've encountered closed doors here and there."

"Closed doors?"

"Only the ones in open corridors open automatically when a person approaches them. The rest work either by mental or manual control," she explained. "But you haven't even noticed the manual control yet because they still keep opening for you."

"Huh," Harry mused. "So you say that we've been operating at least the doors mentally without even noticing it?"

"You haven't interacted with enough technology to really notice the mental controls yet, I think," Elizabeth mused. "But if you wish to start using Atlantis's systems, you need to start learning. And I can only advise you there as I've never been able to do it myself."

"Hmm… I think were haven't noticed yet is because we've rather gotten used to things like these in Hogwarts, the ministry and the magical world general," Kingsley murmured. "But you're right. We can't continue on as we have, we need to learn more about Atlantis's system." He glanced at Harry. "I'd like you to start learning with Doctor Weir."

"Why me?" Harry asked curiously. "I can just learn from Hermione later on."

"I'd rather you learned sooner rather than later, Harry. Judging by what you've done with the DA, you're one of the better teachers in our little group," Kingsley shrugged. "And if you're the one teaching, people will listen."

"Kingsley, I'm only seventeen years old," Harry said flatly.

"And yet you've taught very high level defensive and offensive charms to group of children who shouldn't have been able to learn them until they were at least off the age. Everyone in DA knows Patronus, that's more than even Order can say," Kingsley said while standing up. "You have much better qualifications for a teacher than some of the Hogwarts teachers have had."

"That's not saying much considering some of the teachers Hogwarts has had," Harry muttered. "But I'll see what I can do."

"You're a teacher?" Elizabeth asked after Kingsley had left.

"I tutored a little when we had a very poor defence teacher back at Hogwarts," Harry shrugged. "It was two years ago, though."

"I see," she nodded thoughtfully and concentrated onto her eating for a moment before looking up again. "I have been wondering about something," she then said. "Even though I gave you the addresses to the worlds with possible power sources in… none of you has felt like it would be worth it to go and check them out. In fact I don't think anyone of you wants to use the gate at all - I had to even persuade Kingsley to keep people stationed at the gateroom at all times."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "You think we should leave?" he asked confusedly.

"Well, not leave, but… don't you want to explore? There's an entire galaxy out there full of who knows what. There could be all sort of wondrous things to see… Don't you want to see it?"

"Ah, yes," Harry murmured and thought about it. "Well… we aren't exactly explorers, Elizabeth. We're just people, mostly students, and we just came from a war. We have other concerns right now. We need to get the gardens growing properly, we need to learn how to operate and live in this place, we… we have lot to do."

"But maybe you could find people to trade food with?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well, there is that, but…" Harry shook his head. "I think people here will prefer to be self sustaining. Some of us spend the entire year being oppressed by someone else, so right now little bit of independence is important for us. Also, having to look for help… that wouldn't help the morale around here at all."

Elizabeth nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose you're right," she murmured and sighed. "It's just that I came to this galaxy to explore. I'm curious person, I can't stand the idea that there is something interesting and new out there and I'm not even trying to have a look at it."

"Someone could call that nosiness," Harry mused and smiled. "I don't think we will completely forget the gate and all it's possibilities, though. Though in general we aren't explorers, some of us very, very curious people," he admitted, thinking of people like Arthur Weasley. "I'm sure that at some point we might use the gate for little exploration. But it probably won't happen while we have other, more important concerns. The universe can wait. Our empty stomachs can't."

The woman sighed heavily. "Well, I suppose there's the entirety of Atlantis left to be explored," she mused. "And the main land too."

"The… what?"

"Lantea has one continent," Elizabeth explained. "The ancients of course abandoned it long ago when they submerged Atlantis, but… I don't think it has gone anywhere even if it has been ten thousand years. I can show it on the map for you, if you'd like to see it."

Harry blinked. "Wait, there's a continent on this planet? It's not just ocean, there's land?" he asked and leaned forward. "Do you think there's life there? Plants, animals? How about, um, metal, do you think it could be mined there?"

"I… I don't know, but I think database will have the data about the planet, it should all be there," Elizabeth said. "Why?"

"Well, let's just say we're running on limited amount of supplies," Harry said. "We have artisans here who need materials to do their work and they're bit antsy about the fact that there aren't any on Atlantis. If there's a continent out there which could provide us with what we need, then… we need to check it out."

"Well, knowing it's there and getting to it is one two different things," Elizabeth said slowly. "I can't remember it's location exactly, but I think it's in the other side of the planet. Give or take few thousand miles. Either way, that's too far for a broom." She thought about it. "Any of you particularly good at flying?" she then asked. "I mean exceptionally good. Instinctively even."

"Some of us are, yes," Harry answered. "Why?"

"Well, Atlantis has several spaceships capable of getting to the mainland in matter or few hours," she said. "The problem is that they're mostly controlled mentally."

Harry thought about it before nodding. "Let's have a look of them. I'll gather all the more skilled Quidditch players of Atlantis together and we'll see if any of us can figure the ships out," he said. "I'm sure they're willing to try. Especially if there's the possibility of getting out feet on solid ground."

They finished their food quickly and headed away, Elizabeth explaining what little he knew about the Atlantean ships and the continent while Harry balanced slumbering Teddy in his arms and tried to memorise all she was saying.

x

"So, we might be able to fly with these things?" Charlie asked, eying the cylinder-shaped ships in one of the Atlantis's many ship bays. "They don't look like they're made for flying."

"Well, that's technology for you. Besides, brooms don't exactly look like they've been made for flying either," Harry mused while rocking Teddy in his arms. He glanced at the others he had gathered to the bay. Each and every one of them was a Quidditch player, though Oliver Wood was the only one who had ever played professionally - if one didn't count Madam Hooch who had of course taught flying, that was.

"I don't know, Potter," the teacher murmured, her hands at her hips. "I can tell you half hundred different ways of handing a broom and dozen or so methods of manoeuvring a flying carpet, but this… Just look at those things! They're so big the manoeuvring is bound to be next to impossible…"

"Well, I doubt they will handle like brooms, but they weren't meant to," Harry chuckled. "And I bet they can do a lot brooms can. Like go underwater and outer space - if we managed to figure them out, we'd be the first witches and wizards of Earth to ever go to outer space, you know."

"I think we're far enough of our usual space already, don't you think?" George chuckled while giving the nearest ship a thoughtful look. "It would be cool, though," he added before taking a step forward. "I'm going to give it a try. How can you get inside?"

"The hatch in the end opens - here, let me show you," Harry said stepping forward. The others followed him and watched closely as he opened the hatch like Elizabeth had shown him. As the back wall of the ship lowered to floor to form a ramp of sort, the lights lit up inside the ship.

"They're pretty spacey," Angelina Johnson murmured curiously. "You can fit at least dozen people here."

"Well, they wouldn't be too useful if you could only fit one or so people, would they?" Harry murmured as they headed inside. "When I was in one of these earlier I managed to make the lights go on - and I got a display open here," he motioned at the windshield. "But I didn't dare to try anything else since I have Teddy with me."

George sat down carefully to the driver's seat. "Hm, no wheel, huh? Different from muggle cars. How did you --" he trailed away as the controls suddenly lit up. He stared at them for a moment in surprise before grinning widely. "Wicked! Okay, how did you get the, whatever you called it, displ --" he trailed away as the windshield was lit up by a screen. He laughed. "This is so cool. This ship really can read minds?"

"Well, something like that," Harry said, and motioned the controls. "As far as Elizabeth could tell, the ship is partially manoeuvred by the control rods and partially by thoughts. I'm not sure how that works yet, but it shouldn't be that difficult to figure out. Oh and try not to think about destroying anything. This ship has pretty powerful weapons, you could blow something vital with a stray thought."

"Oh. Okay then. Think happy thoughts, got it," George nodded, examining the controls of the ship. He tentatively grabbed a hold on them. "You recon it's forward to forward and right to right and so forth?"

"Probably, but you need to start the engine first. That you need to think on," Harry said, and was immediately awarded by soft hum as the ship's engines powered on. "Like that."

"This is so awesome. Can I try flying with this thing?" George asked, fiddling the controls cautiously. "I'd really like to take another look at Atlantis from above. Haven't gotten the chance to take a broom out again."

"Not with me and Teddy on board, you can't," Harry said, standing up. "Besides I think that we should make sure that you can actually fly this thing properly before you take her out. Otherwise you might crash into the ocean - or worse yet, into Atlantis. For now just try hovering or something for a moment," he said while moving pass the crowd of Quidditch players who had been watching. "I'll make sure you don't make any sudden speedups and crash into a wall in the mean while, okay?"

"Harry Potter crash insurance, sweet," George said.

"I want to try one too," Charlie decided and followed Harry out of the ship. He wasn't the only one, Oliver Wood was already approaching the ship next to George's while Madam Hooch was giving suspicious looks to another ship. Harry in mean while took out the Elder Wand and watched the ship George was in closely, ready to throw a holding charm on it if it made any sudden starts.

It took George few minutes, but he eventually got the ship to hover about foot upon the floor. He obviously wanted to do more after his brief success, but decided to leave it until later so that Harry could see if the others would manage the same feat. Not all of them could and the ones who did had varying decrees of success. Surprisingly enough Oliver could only make his ship light up whilst sceptical Hooch got it not only to hover, but she also turned it invisible for a moment.

"What was that?!" Cho Chang murmured, glancing at the others who had been watching the professor test the ship. "You saw it too, right? The ship sort of phased out for a moment."

"Maybe it has some sort of invisibility booster," George said thoughtfully. "Like dad's car - or the car dad used to have."

"But the ancients didn't have magic, did they?" Oliver asked thoughtfully.

"It's probably technological," Harry mused with a shrug. "This city has transporters which work like floo network and we came here through a portal… and I doubt even magic would be able to make a portal like the Stargate. If invisibility is possible through technology, these ancients certainly were advanced enough to achieve it."

"Potter!" Hooch called from the ship. "I think I'm going to take her out. How do you get out of this place?"

"The roof opens," Harry called back. "Give me a moment, I'll open it for you." He headed to the nearest control panel and thinking back how Elizabeth had said it worked, he pressed the crystal controls. Soon after he could hear a clank coming above them and looking up they could see the ceiling opening and retracting into the walls.

"Try not to crash intro anything, Professor!" George called as the rear hatch of Hooch's ship closed. "You think she heard me?" he then asked from Charlie.

"You would end up in detention with twenty points taken from Gryffindor if she had," the elder Weasley answered as they watched the ship slowly start to rise and then take off in slightly faster pace. The dragon tamer chuckled. "I guess she figured it out," he mused and glanced at Harry. "Do you think we should try it too?"

"I wouldn't," Harry answered. The only reason he had even opened the roof for Hooch was because she probably would be able to fly the ship well enough to crash it into ocean and Apparate out of it in time, if it came to that. Despite knowing the others somewhat well, Harry wasn't willing to take the same risk with them. "Let's just wait until she comes back, and see what she thinks about the ships."

Hooch was gone about thirty minutes, probably flying circles around Atlantis or something like that, before she returned. She didn't seem too impressed but she wasn't as sceptical as before. "Well, I was right about the manoeuvrability, but what these things lose there they get back in speed," she said as she exited the ship. "We could try improving our brooms for the next three thousand years and we would never be able to make them go as fast as these things can go."

"Do you think they will be useful?" Harry asked.

"If we need to go somewhere around here, I'd say so," she nodded. "I want to try few things out with these ships before I say anything more, though. And I'd prefer no one else mucked around with them before I say so," she added giving Harry a look. "You were right about being cautious, inexperienced flier could do real damage to this city with one of these ships."

"Aww, I wanted to try actually flying," George murmured.

"And you can. But not before I figure the limitations and dangers these ships possess," Hooch said sternly.

Harry nodded in complete agreement just as Teddy made a not so quiet whimper. "And I think that is my cue to leave," Harry said, glancing down to the boy who before looking at the professor. "I'll leave the ship matter to your hand, Professor. Let me know how it works out - I'm eager to try them out too."

"I'll do that. Oh, before you go, Potter, show me how to open and close the roof."

Harry did and as soon as Hooch had figured it out she waved him and the others to leave. While most of them Apparated back to whatever they had been doing before, Harry headed out of the ship bay by foot. He knew from experience that Teddy did not like Apparation one bit.

"Harry, wait," Cho called after him and jogged to his side. "Um, I haven't seen you since Hogwarts and I was thinking if I could talk with you for a moment…"

Harry smothered a grimace and smiled instead. "Alright," he said. "Though make it quick, I need to head back to my apartment before Teddy gets fuzzy."

"He's your godson, right? People have been talking about it," the former Ravenclaw said with a fleeting smile, before shaking her head. "But, of course, that wasn't what I wanted to talk about. Are you and Ginny Weasley still… you know?"

Harry blinked. Were he and Ginny what? "Together?" he asked and she nodded embarrassedly. He hummed thoughtfully. "I'm not sure."

"What do you mean, you're not sure?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders. He had avoided thinking about it but after the whole incident of being hit by Killing Curse again… he hadn't been thinking the same way he had before. He could very clearly remember thinking of Ginny fondly just before being hit, but after that… things just had been different. Ginny had probably noticed it too because she hadn't been around much afterwards, giving him several feet worth of space. "I mean, I don't know," he said. "I probably should talk to Ginny about it."

The dark haired girl bit her lip and gave him a look. "If… if you aren't --"

"Cho…" Harry stopped walking to look at her. "The brief time you and I were together was fiasco, complete and utter failure," he said calmly, ignoring the hurt look she gave her. "You weren't over Cedric and I think you still haven't gotten over him. Stop looking at me like that because you and I will never work. And you know it too."

The witch frowned at him before sighing. "You really think so?" she then asked in a small voice.

"Yes, I really do," Harry said, placing his hand over her shoulder for a moment and giving it a squeeze. "You need to think things through. You need to say goodbye to Cedric, you need to stop forcing it with me and after that you need to figure out what you _really_ need. Not just what you want."

For a moment Cho looked really small and really weak, before she raised her chin. Surprisingly enough, her eyes were completely dry as she nodded her head. "Yeah… yeah I think you might be right," she said. "Thanks Harry."

"No problem," Harry offered her a smile. "Go on," he then said when she still lingered near him and with another nod, Cho turned on her spot and vanished.

Harry sighed to himself softly. Well, at least that was a matter he hopefully wouldn't need to give any thought to from here on. "Teddy, when you grow up, avoid relationships with girls who have dead boyfriends, alright? You'll avoid whole lot trouble if you do," he said to the quietly whining baby before speeding his steps up. He had a feeling the boy would be in need of change pretty soon and stalling wouldn't be good for either of them.

Andromeda wasn't at his apartment anymore when he arrived, but Kreacher was there of course to welcome him back. "Have you visited the gardens today, Corun Án?" the elf asked when Harry stepped inside. "If you have, I would wish you to take your shoes off. I just finished tidying."

"I haven't gone outside today," Harry said but still toed his shoes off at the entrance while glancing around in the living room. "I see you added some candles," he noticed. Almost every flat surface now had a few candles on them all of them lit whilst the ceiling and wall lights weren't.

"Yes. Most of them are duplicates," Kreacher said. "I also made sure that they would not burn out."

"You made the candles burn endlessly?" Harry asked while heading for the bathroom where Kreacher had set up everything for proper baby care. "Another new power? I've also noticed that you and the other elves have changed speech patterns," Harry glanced at the elf. "Is there a reason for it?"

"It was… difficult to speak before," Kreacher said with a mild frown while following Harry to the bathroom. "I'm not entirely sure why it was like that, but after I was bonded to Atlantis, speaking and thinking has gotten easier."

"Well, that's a good thing, I suppose," Harry mused, wondering how far the changes would go and how long they would keep on progressing. Would Kreacher keep on discovering new powers and getting smarter? The idea was both relieving and rather frightening.

"I will be able to serve you better this way, master Corun Án," Kreacher assured. "Now, is there something you need?"

"Get a bottle for Teddy, would you?" Harry asked while starting the task of changing the boy's nappies. He had already done it a few times, but he still hadn't quite gotten adjusted to it. Thankfully Teddy didn't seem to feel like screaming that time and he managed to clean the boy and change him without too much of a fuss.

"When did Andromeda leave?" Harry asked while shooting few cleaning charms into the dirty nappy before dropping it into the laundry basket.

"Few hours ago, master Corun Án. I think she headed outside, she said that if you needed to find her, she'd be having a walk in the piers," Kreacher answered while reappearing with a freshly heated baby bottle. "I don't think you should bother her, though. She seemed to have lot on her mind."

Harry raised his eyebrows at the suggestion. Seemed like Kreacher was changing more than his speech pattern. "I wasn't going to. As far as I can provide, she can have as long as she needs to herself," he said while gently picking Teddy up again. "I prefer her to be sound state of mind by the time she returns being Teddy's full time guardian - if she even wants to be one."

"Indeed," Kracher nodded.

Harry hummed in agreement while heading back to the sitting room where he could feed Teddy while comfortably sitting down. "Thanks," he said while accepting the bottle from Kreacher. After checking that the temperature of the milk was right, he offered the teat to Teddy who, after rejecting it twice, accepted it and started to hungrily drink. "There we go," Harry murmured while leaning back in his armchair. "Hm. I think I'm getting the hang of this looking after a baby thing."

"I'm sure that with little practice you would make a wonderful father, Corun Án," Kreacher agreed before glancing away from Harry. Just then a small silvery dog rammed through the wall into the living room. "It seems you have a message."

"Yes, I can see that, Kreacher," Harry chuckled while the Jack Russell terrier shook itself and then started to speak.

"Harry, where are you right now? I need to talk to you," Ron's voice said asked before the Patronus faded away in silvery mist.

Taking out his wand, Harry waved it to conjure his own Patronus. "I'm at my apartment, it's the last one in the topmost floor of the apartment building. Call for Kreacher if you can't find it," he imprinted the message into the stag before sending it away with a wave of his wand.

"Should I get some snacks for master Weasley?" Kreacher asked thoughtfully.

Harry thought about it before chuckling. "No, don't. He would probably appreciate it but it's better that we spend food sparingly," he said. "I meant to talk about that with the elves here, now that I think about it. Nella loaded my tray with too much food when I stopped by for breakfast earlier. Could you tell the other elves, if you see them, not to do that? They shouldn't get me any more food than they get for anyone else. I don't need any more than anyone else and if they keep singling me out it will look like I'm having some special privileges the others don't have."

"I'll mention your opinion to the others, master Corun Án, I'm sure they will understand," Kreacher nodded.

"Good. Thank you," Harry nodded.

It didn't take Ron long to find the apartment. Thankfully the door was still left unlocked so Harry didn't need to get up to let his friend in and didn't need to disturb Teddy. "Hi, Ron," he simply said as the door opened to let the redhead in. "Sorry for not getting up but Teddy's just quieted down."

"It's okay, Harry," Ron said, waving at the door haphazardly to make it shut before taking off his shoes and making his way inside. "Nice," he nodded, glancing around in the living room. "Stuff from Grimmauld Place, I see. Not bad at all."

"Thanks," Harry grinned. "How's your apartment coming along?"

"Well, it's not really mine. Mum furbished it mostly," Ron sighed while sitting down. "I'd get my own like you and Hermione have, but mum won't let me. Apparently the whole thing about being away for a year has made her bit possessive," he grinned awkwardly and looked at Teddy. His grin widened. "Who would've thought it, that Professor Lupin's son would be so cute?"

"Well, Teddy is Tonks' son too, so… he can look as cute as he wants to," Harry grinned back, taking the bottle away from Teddy who wasn't drinking anymore. Setting it aside, he lifted the boy against his shoulder to burp him before he would fall asleep. "So, was there something you needed?"

"Well, not really… kind of," Ron pursed his lips in thought before sighing. "You're not going to like it."

Harry gave him a slightly worried look. "I'm not?" he asked carefully.

"No, I don't think so," the redhead nodded and shrugged his shoulders. "It's about mum. She… well, now that they got the Dining Hall up and running, the house elves sort of took it over and she doesn't have anything to busy herself with, you know? For a while she was concentrating to the apartment, cleaning our stuff and organising it, finding places for everything, stuff like that."

"Okay," Harry nodded. "If she wants something to do I think they could make use of her in the gardens and orchards."

"No, that's not it - though she was thinking about it too, and there's the chickens and everything too, but anyway…" Ron grimaced awkwardly. "She… well, every now and then she just, I don't know… collapses or something. Like when they were unpacking the clock, you know, the one which tells where we all are and stuff, and Fred's hand had fallen off it. And when she was sorting George's and Fred's old stuff…"

There was a moment of awkward silence. "The walls here are pretty solid," Ron murmured. "But I still hear her cry at night. Dad's trying to help, but… well. He's not taking it too well either. So, I was hoping that you could… borrow _it_."

Harry frowned at him just as Teddy burped softly into his neck. Then, while easing the baby into more comfortable position, he sighed. "I've been thinking about that, Ron, and I don't think it's that good idea," he said, lifting his right hand and eyeing the Peverell ring which had became permanent addition to his middle finger. "It won't help her or anyone in your family if Fred's spirit is called back."

"But you called people back before, didn't you? How can you say no to us when you yourself --"

"Because I thought I was dying. I called them back to make it easier to me - to make dying easier. I called them back to _fetch me_ to where they are," Harry interrupted. "I know what it feels like. Trust me, Ron. I lost Sirius, and if I had had the ring back then I would've called him back in a _heartbeat_. But then what? I wouldn't have been able to send him back. I would've kept him around. And it would've been so easy too, to pretend that he was actually back, that he was alive…"

He trailed away with a frown. "But it would've been disservice for both of us. Sure, it would've been lovely to see him, but it wouldn't have helped me at all to get over his death. I would've just ended up in denial and eventually that would've driven me mental, I know it would've." Harry frowned. "And yeah, I called people back and they didn't seem too bothered about being called back, but what if I had forced them to stay longer? They were more than ghost yet less than alive and I don't think spirits like that are meant to remain in this world. Hell, very few ghosts are happy being what they are."

"Harry, it's _mum_. I know it would help her to…"

"Would it?" Harry asked and shook his head. "I don't think so. What she is doing right now is pretty healthy, actually. She'll cry for a while and I'm sure it's heartbreaking to listen, but tears heal. Trust me. She will never stop missing Fred, I doubt any of you will, but only by _mourning_ will any of you get over it."

Ron frowned, staring at his hands. Harry sighed with relief and smiled. "Wouldn't calling him back now be more like teasing her? Torturing her by showing her what she has just lost?" he asked softly. "Let her get over it. Once she has, then I'll borrow the ring. When it won't just hurt her more to see him. When she can say her goodbyes with a smile rather than tears."

There was a silence and to give Ron some make belief privacy, Harry turned his attention to Teddy. The whole thing was probably most damaging for Ron. Ron and Hermione were the only ones aside from Harry who knew about the Stone of Resurrection. Hermione was better off, she hadn't lost anyone terribly close, but Ron… Ron had lost his brother. And he knew how easily he could get him back in certain form. That didn't help him at all because that knowledge kept him from healing.

Mrs. Weasley was well on her way to healing because she didn't have a choice. Ron was kept from accepting and in false hope because he knew that there was a sort of chance. Even if he didn't realise it.

"You want some tea?" Harry asked after long silence.

"I want some firewhiskey," the redhead muttered.

"Bit too early for that, besides I don't have any," Harry answered with a smile. "Kreacher," he called to the elf who had left them alone when Ron had arrived. "Could you get some tea for us?" he wasn't given an answer, but he was pretty certain the elf had heard him.

"So, what have you been doing?" Harry asked. "You can't still be working with the food storage since the elves are handling that."

Ron sighed and shrugged. "We've been exploring a little," he answered. "Kingsley wants to know where everything is in the city and even Elizabeth Weir doesn't know it all, so we've been looking around. Also, Sprout and her group wants us to find a place where they can set up something called hydro-something. Something about growing plants in water or something like that."

"Hydroponics," Harry answered, remembering how Aunt Petunia had studied it once - and then discarded it for being such unnatural method of growing plants. "They want to set a hydroponics garden? Why? Aren't the outdoor garden areas enough?"

"Well, they don't have enough soil to cover everything. Just to cover one pier they've already used engorgio on the dirt they have so many times that they can't do it anymore. Soil's one of those things you can't make out of nothing, the fourth of Gamp's Law of Magical whatnot," Ron shrugged, glancing up as Kreacher appeared with tea tray. "Sprout said it has something to do with the fact that soil - or parts of it or whatever - is essentially created from living things that died or something. Anyway, the muggle herbologist suggested this water growing thing to them, so they're now looking for a place to set it all up."

"Botanist, muggle herbologists are called botanists," Harry answered, nodding in thought. "That could ensure food production if growing in the pier doesn't work like they want it to," he mused, thinking back to what little he could remember about hydroponics. He had impression that Aunt Petunia hadn't liked it because it gave better results than normal growing methods. "Did you find a place?"

"There's lot of empty space in Atlantis, so I think they will have a place to set it up," Ron answered while reaching to make himself a cup. "If no other place will do, then the other apartment buildings should work. There's huge amounts of empty space there, after all."

"There's lot of empty space here too," Harry mused. Not only in the entirety of the building where they were in, but in his apartment too. "If they would set up some indoor gardens here, they would certainly be close enough for people to attend to them - and harvest from them when ever they need," he mused. Having a small indoor garden in one of his many rooms could be interesting too.

"I guess," Ron mused while leaning back with his tea cup. "You know, Oliver Wood is thinking about setting up a Quidditch pit into the end of the Garden Pier," he said, nodding to the direction of the end of the pier.

"Is he? That could be interesting," Harry nodded. And it would be good for general morality to have some familiar entertainment in Atlantis. "If he's thinking of doing it in the end of the pier he needs to set up some serious security charms," he mused. "Having a player crash into the ocean could be… bad."

"Yeah. He was trying to get Bill to do the safety net charms for him the last I heard about it," Ron snorted. "It would be awesome if we would get teams up and start playing games every now and then."

Harry nodded in agreement and for a while they talked about Quidditch and whether or not they could play Gobstones in the gardens. Harry's heart wasn't truly in the discussion because as much as Quidditch interested him, he would rather have ensured survival before ensured entertainment. He didn't let his opinion get into the discussion though, because in the end it was for Ron. Because he needed the distraction.

The more he looked forward to something, the less he would look back at the people who died and at the Stone of Resurrection which could bring them back.

"Luna might be right," Harry murmured later when Ron had left to find Oliver Wood to see if there was anything he could do to get the Quidditch pit up and running faster. First Andromeda, then Cho and now Ron. They were all people relatively close to him, but if he would keep his doors open, keep himself available… would more people come to him like this?

While standing up to take Teddy to his crib, Harry wondered if it would be better if he would never lock his front door. Later, when Andromeda came back and said that she had decided to live with him for a while so that they could look after Teddy together, he decided that it was probably best he didn't lock it.

"You don't mind, right?" the woman asked even while starting to unpack her possessions to the room next to Harry's.

"Not at all," Harry said, and found that he really didn't. Teddy was nice enough kid and he wanted the boy to have solid care takers. Andromeda wasn't bad either, and she needed company even though she wasn't about to admit it. So it was alright. "But you need to know that I'm probably going to have visitors often," he said.

"I don't mind," Andromeda nodded while setting up moving pictures of Ted, Tonks and Remus to her window sill. "It's your house."

"Maybe, but I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable," Harry shrugged.

"It's fine," the woman assured. "I probably won't be around enough to get in the way either. I'm going to be working with Sinistra with the local astronomy for a long while by the looks of it."

Harry nodded before starting to help her unpack. They talked about the apartment, about their upcoming duties around Atlantis and about Harry's plan for the indoor garden, which she agreed with. The whole thing made Harry feel strangely at home.

x

In the following day Kingsley called a meeting in the meditation hall. Harry suspected that it had at first been a meeting for the artisans and workers of Atlantis but something had changed along the way and instead it was a meeting about… well, just about everything concerning Atlantis.

When Harry got there with Andromeda after they had left Teddy to be looked after by Kreacher, the enormous hall was half full with people. There were rows and rows of benches in the hall, all facing a table which had been set into the middle of the huge hall. Some of the benches had people sitting in them, but most of the people were standing and talking amongst themselves.

"Impressive," Andromeda murmured as the two of them too in the hall. She turned her gaze upwards to the glass ceiling arching over them. Left and right they could see buildings of Atlantis leaning over them and above them they could see blue sky and some slight clouds lazily drifting over it. "I can see why they want to put the shopping street here. It's… very impressive."

"Yeah," Harry murmured, glancing at the many fountains in the huge hall. He now understood why Kingsley had thought the hall would be popular place. It was not only beautiful to look at but beautiful to listen as well. "I really hope Madam Puddifoot and Madam Rosmerta will put tables outside to the main hall," he said. "Having a cup of tea here…"

"Yeah," Andromeda nodded in agreement. "Or glass of firewhiskey."

"Harry! Come over here," Kingsley called out when he noticed Harry. He was standing by the table with McGonagall and master Magee. "Your seat is here."

"Go on, I'll find a seat somewhere. It doesn't seem like we have any shortage of those," Andromeda said and with a nod Harry headed for Kingsley and McGonagall, nodding his greetings to the people he passed by.

"We want you to sit in the front with us," Kingsley motioned to the few seats in the table. Harry opened his mouth to argue, but the man raised his hand to forestall it. "I know you don't care about being part of the council, but it doesn't change the fact that people look up to you. You already are part of this, whether you want it or not."

"Kingsley," Harry sighed. "First of all, I'm too young. And secondly, I have other concerns. Teddy for one."

"Teddy has Andromeda too, and you won't be the first leader in history of leaders who has kids, Harry, trust me on that," Kingsley snorted. "Besides, if this goes as we plan it will, your position will be more like… ceremonial."

"You mean I'm going to be your figurehead?" Harry asked flatly.

"No, you're sort of like the advisor and counsellor of Atlantis. The Corun Án," Kingsley answered with a little grin. "You haven't heard the rumours going around?"

Harry sighed. He hadn't but he could imagine it. In community as tiny as theirs rumours spread lightning fast, especially with most of people living in the same Merlin damned building. And the house elves probably weren't taking his side on this, and just spread the word more. "People aren't taking it seriously, are they?" he asked hopefully.

"Well…" Kingsley smiled faintly.

Harry sighed heavily. "Damn it," he murmured. "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to give your honest opinions," Kingsley answered, looking up as sound of hooves echoed over the gentle sound of flowing water. Harry looked towards the sound to see that Ronan and Entau had entered the hall, escorted by Hagrid. "Oh good. I wasn't sure if the centaurs would wish to take part in this."

"You asked?" Harry glanced at the man, feeling oddly pleased.

"Of course. I don't want to single them out and since they are now living smack in middle of the Garden Pier, we figured they would want to know what our plans were," Kingsley shrugged.

Harry nodded and smiled as the centaurs approached them. "Entau, Ronan. Good morning," he greeted them.

"Good morning, Harry," Entau nodded with a tight smile while looking around. "This is where you will intend to start your trading?"

"This place was selected for the shops, yes," Harry nodded. "What do you think?"

"I hope that it will go peacefully. This is a house of serenity and enlightenment," the elderly centaur said, folding her arms. "I hope that your insipid frays over rare metals won't ruin it."

"We shouldn't have any problem with that. Money sort of lost the meaning it had on Earth when we came here," Harry assured. "How is the gardens looking, the forest? Any growth yet?"

While waiting for the rest of the people to arrive, Harry talked with the centaurs about the forest they were growing and about the gardens in general. They even talked about the hydroponics gardens and Harry was rather surprised to find that the centaurs actually supported that sort of artificial growing - they were actually even curious about how it worked.

"We are forsaking some of our old taboos," Ronan said somewhat sadly. "The circumstances for us have changed greatly and we feel it is necessary that we must change as well."

"Of course some things will not change, but our interactions with you humans, our co-existence here on this city… we must adjust to it," Entau nodded. "And we also feel that we must do out share of the work around here. We must eat just as you must eat, and the forest will most likely never be enough to provide for our needs. Thus we will work together with you in order to ensure that we too will remain fed."

Harry smiled. "That's good to hear," he said. The idea of centaurs farming - or better yet, centaurs working in hydroponics laboratories - was rather odd, but he was sure he could get adjusted to it. He wasn't sure what he would think if the centaurs would wish learn to pilot the ships as well, that would probably be too much for him to handle.

Once the hall was full and it seemed like everyone was present, Kingsley called for people to quiet down and take their seats. While Entau and Ronan stood next to the rows of benches, Harry took seat in end of the table next to Elizabeth. Kingsley, McGonagall, Pomfrey, Sprout and Annie Hall, the metal-charmer, were also seated in the table.

"Since this is the first official meeting held in Atlantis and we have yet to work out any official procedures for this, I think we don't need to be too stiff about this," Kingsley started, his voice slightly tuned up by a sonorous charm. "Let's just all be frank and fair and I think we will be alright. Now, since I doubt everyone here knows everyone, let's do brief introductions. I am Kingsley Shacklebolt, I previously worked for the Ministry for Magic as an Auror and a hit wizard and I was also part of the Order of Phoenix, the vigilante group started by late Headmaster Albus Dumbledore."

He looked towards McGonagall who was sitting next to him. The transfiguration professor gave similar introductions, as did everyone else until Elizabeth had intruded herself as diplomat, doctor and time traveller and they finally reached Harry who was struck speechless for a moment. He had never had to introduce himself since he had entered the wizarding world and he had no idea what to say.

"I'm Harry Potter, the co-founder of the Dumbledore's Army as well as it's teacher and an unofficial member of the Order of Phoenix," he said rather awkwardly. Silence followed. "Um…" he murmured awkwardly. "Do I need to say something else?"

"Do you really have the Wand of Destiny?" a man asked in the crowd.

"Are you _really_ a Corun Án?" a woman asked almost immediately in the same time.

"Is it true that you died and came back to life?" someone else asked and then the questions got too numerous for anyone to actually make sense of them.

"Quiet down!" Kingsley called over the noise, clapping his hand loudly against the table. "I'm pretty sure we all know Harry Potter and he needs no further introduction. If you have something to ask of him, you can do so after this meeting, alright? Good." He sat down again. "We arranged this meeting to address some issues around here, and that is what we're going to do. Let's start with the most pressing one."

Sprout stood up and in calm tones started to explain the progress they had had with the gardens and the forest - and that they were now planning the hydroponics gardens. She had to explain what it meant and how it worked and got quite bit support when she explained that once they would figure out a way of making gardens like that easily possible, everyone could take part in them - and maybe even grow some vegetables and such in their own apartments.

"We should be able to grow magical herbs with this method and though it hasn't been tested yet, we think we might end up with far better herbs than we would if we would grow them outside in soil," Sprout said. "We will also be able to grow fungi more easily indoors as most fungi, magical or otherwise, do not require much light."

"Any questions?" Kingsley asked.

"Yes, are we going to set up a store where people can get fresh food?" one woman dressed in muggle clothes asked. "The Dining Hall is great, but… my youngest son has a severe allergy and I would prefer to make his food myself." Few people nodded agreeing in the crowd. It made Harry wonder how the centaurs had been getting their food since they hadn't visited the dining hall, but he supposed some sort of arrangement had been made for them.

"Hmm… we hadn't thought of that," Kingsley murmured, glancing at Sprout who seemed to think about it.

"Well, for now you can visit the food storage to get your ingredients," Sprout finally said. "Later, once the gardens are actually producing food, we will see about setting up a store where everyone can pick their preferred food supplies. we might need to make lists of who wants what, but as it will be at least a week or two before the gardens are actually up for producing anything…."

"Master Corun Án," whisper alerted Harry's attention, making him glance to his left. One of the elves had appeared behind him - it was Iliina, one of the many Harry had bonded to Atlantis. "I didn't want to disturb the meeting but we elves felt like it should be noted that we can make specific diets for people."

Harry nodded and cleared his throat to get the attention. "Also, if there are any special needs considering food, you can just let the elves know about it," he said, glancing around the crowd. "They are fully capable of working around special diets. They are pretty good at telling people apart so as long as they have been let known about any special needs, so there shouldn't be any mix ups."

"How many elves are there here?" someone asked. "Were they here before or…"

"They came with us from Hogwarts and have been bonded to serve Atlantis," Kingsley said. "There is roughly four dozen of them." Thoughtful silence followed. "Any other questions concerning food?"

"Yes, do we all have to work in the gardens?" someone asked.

"Well, you don't have to," Sprout answered though the frown on her face said how much she liked that concept. "But we do prefer that people do their share of the work. Magic makes things easier but it doesn't make everything automated. The more people are working in the gardens, the better, at least now whilst we're trying to get everything started."

"We consider the crops the reward for working. The only way we will have any food around here is that people will keep on working in the gardens, after all. If no one works, no one also eats," Kingsley said cheerfully.

"Why not just pay for the food and pay for workers for their work?" a witch in the crowd asked confusedly.

"Because it has been decided that Atlantis will have no money," master Magee was the one to answer this time. "Not all of us brought money with us. Of course we could make a new currency for ourselves if we really wanted to but our little colony is in fact so little that setting up economy of money, when we can just as easily do without it, seems rather ridiculous."

There was a moment of silence before someone yelled, "That's hippogriff dung!" whilst someone else almost wailed, "What do you mean no money?!" and after that the entire meeting almost collapsed into chaos. It didn't last for long, though. Kingsley lifted his wand and shot a spell which make a sound similar to cannon blast.

"That's _enough_!" he barked. "Settle down and we'll discuss this like civilised people!"

"But how are we supposed to do anything if there is no money? This place is supposed to be a shopping street, right? How are we going to buy anything or sell anything if there is no money?" one confused looking wizard asked.

"By trading item for item," Kingsley explained. "If we can work a… working cycle that will support the agriculture, then all our basic needs here will be met. We already have magnificent place to live, we have beds to sleep and it's all free. We have endless supply of water thanks to Atlantis's excellent filtration systems, and again, that water is free. And if the farming will work as we wish it will, then food also will be free. When you have all that, you won't need money to survive."

"The artisans of Atlantis have already agreed on the new trading and recycling principle," master Magee agreed. "And we are indeed no longer craftsmen but artisans. We no longer need to work in order to scrape up a living, since we can live even if we do not work. Now we will work for different purposes and for different goals than money. I for one welcome the notion that I can work just in order to perfect my art of metallurgy, metal charming and apparatus creation."

"As do I," Annie Hall agreed. "I make magical jewellery," she explained to the people who now turned their attention to her. "And I became magical goldsmith because I liked the idea of creating something beautiful and magical. It was a _calling_ for me, in a way. But when I became a true craftsman, I no longer could do what I wanted which was to invent and create, but instead I produced products for selling. It was a _living_, but hardly enjoyable."

"But if that's so, then… why are you setting shops at all, if you don't intend to sell anything?" someone asked.

"Because it's still a calling," Hall shrugged and smiled. "I rather like the idea of perhaps making jewellery for people here. Seeing my necklaces and earrings and rings adorning the men and women here. Maybe I could even make the wedding bands for the first couple married in Atlantis! For me that is a thought worth working for."

"The artisans here will trade for their products from now on," Magee continued. "Old robe for new one, old necklace for new one, old device for new one. We can take apart those old items we get in trade, and then make something new out of them. This way we don't use up our few resources and can keep on working unhindered."

Thoughtful silence followed. It was probably a new concept for people, the idea of trading without using medium for barter, but once it had been explained it didn't seem so incomprehensible.

"Any other questions considering food production?" Kingsley asked. "Well, then, I guess we can then move onto the trading and the matter of Meditation Hall since we already brushed against that subject."

Harry leaned back while Kingsley, Magee and Hall explained how the Meditation Hall would operate. This time people weren't so quick to disagree with new ideas and the matter was explained pretty smoothly. Few even considered the possibilities of becoming artisans themselves, which Harry considered to be somewhat a good thing.

"We are also going to install a Spellstone into the hall, right over there," Magee said, motioning at the end of the hall and at a large fountain that stood in the end. "So that everyone who visits the hall will be able to power it in at their leisure. And we of course hope that everyone will make it a habit to fire a few spell at it every times they see it - the more spells are fired at it, the less likely Atlantis is to sink."

After that the discussion moved to Elizabeth Weir and Atlantis. Elizabeth explained her origins and knowledge and offered to teach everyone willing to learn anything she knew about Atlantis. Kingsley casually mentioned all of those who had already agreed to learn - and mentioned Harry's name rather promotionally - whilst enforcing the point of how important it would be in the long run to know how to work in the city.

"I am going to teach the language of the ancients and the Atlantean systems separately," Elizabeth Weir finished her talk. "And it is preferable that those who wish to learn to use the systems will be also learning the language as it is nearly impossible to operate the systems without at least basic understanding over it."

After that the talk smoothly switched over to McGonagall explained that in time, she and the professors from Hogwarts would be opening a new magic school, the Atlantis Academy, or just the Academy. It would teach all the basic subjects that had been taught in Hogwarts except now the history of magic would also eventually cover the history of ancients and Atlantis and new classes would be added. Magical agriculture would be important part of the studying as well as general magical safety, metal-enchantment and some other classes which would be useful to know in the city.

"It's most likely that that doctor Weir's lessons will be eventually added to the Academy curriculum," McGonagall continued. "However until further notice they will remain separate lessons. For now it has been decided that I will be the headmistress of the Atlantis Academy with professor Flitwick taking the part of the deputy headmaster."

From the leadership of the Academy, the matter moved smoothly to the final matter which was leadership of Atlantis. "So far it has been the common idea that Ministry for Magic will not be duplicated here," Kingsley spoke, leaning forward. "We don't want a body for governing so easy to corrupt and so easy to take over. It is unlikely that we will encounter the same political issues here that are present on Earth and as we are all refugees from a war, it is unlikely that any of us are in hurry to get into another… but we still wish to keep the governing here as simple and as reliable as possible."

"To that end we propose of setting up a council of selected individuals who will be the spokespersons of their selected fields," McGonagall explained while taking a piece of parchment and reading through it. "There will be a councillor for the traders of Meditation Hall, for the agriculture and horticulture and for any other field which will become important. Also, the centaurs will have their vote in the council as well as the house elves should they choose to take it. And we propose a ruling councillor who will dictate the course of all meetings and advising councillor who will be impartial in every meeting. Every matter in Atlantis would be decided and voted between the councillors."

She set the parchment down and looked up. "Everyone in Atlantis is up for voting, and everyone will have the chance to get into the council. The seats in the council will be decided by majority vote - the person who gets most votes, gets in the council, simply enough. And each councillor will then have the right to call for a new voting if he or she feels that a fellow council member is unfit for their duties."

There was a silence that followed the rather heavy words. Harry leaned back and considered the government they wanted to put up. It seemed simple enough but he had a feeling that it would get more complicated eventually. Every government had it's faults after all, this one would eventually find its.

"Do you have any suggestions for the council members?" one elderly wizard asked, standing up in the crowd. The man looked familiar and in a moment Harry recognised it to be Neville's relative, Algie Neville had called the man. "Or will we just vote ourselves?"

There was soft chuckles in the crowd, and Kingsley laughed. "No, no, I think it's best that no one will be able to vote themselves," he said. "That way we will never get a council up and running. I do have a suggestion for one of the council seats, however."

"Yourself?" Algie asked innocently and people laughed again.

Kingsley chuckled and shook his head. "No," he said and turned his eyes to the others sitting at the table. It took Harry a moment to realise that he was the one the auror was looking. "I suggest that Harry Potter will be made the neutral advising councillor," Kingsley said. "In the last few days he has shown remarkable sympathy towards all the people in Atlantis from wizards to muggles to house elves and to centaurs," he motioned towards Entau and Ronan before looking at Harry. "He will able to stand in the council without taking sides."

"You're mental," Harry said frankly and ignored the chuckles coming from the crowd. "Absolutely Merlin damned bonkers. I don't _want_ to be in the council."

"All the more reason to make you a member," Kingsley grinned. "At least we will know you don't you won't do it in order to gain power and fame."

Harry rolled his eyes. Considering who he was, how on Earth could he get more famous around Atlantis?

"But in the end it is only suggestion, and even the seat of the advising councillor is up for voting," Kingsley continued, turning his attention to the crowd. "We will hold the voting publicly in one week. All the votes will be placed in a bag so that the votes will remain anonymous, but they will be read aloud. How the voting will occur will be explained in further detail once we have actually worked the details out. Any questions?"

There were a lot, but Harry tuned most of them out, instead of thinking the dungbomb Kingsley had dropped to his lap. Neutral party in the council? Was the man mad? He was the least neutral person in wizard world. Though, when he thought about it, he had always opposed Voldemort and his ideals… but they were neither present nor an issue in Atlantis. Within the halls of Atlantis where the matters only concerned daily life…

"People seem to trust you quite bit," Elizabeth murmured to Harry thoughtfully. "And know you quite well."

Harry smiled mirthlessly. "I was one of the leading figures in the war we fought," he shrugged. "I'm… somewhat well known for what I did during it."

"But you're only seventeen!"

Harry's smile turned slightly sad. He didn't quite know how to explain that he had became famous before learning to speak properly and that he had killed a man for the first time at age of eleven - even if the situation had been bit weird, Quirrell had still died. As had the shadow of Tom Riddle. For him that was ordinary, part of every day life, nothing unusual. Elizabeth and anyone else who didn't know him too well would take it all too seriously.

"Are you a child soldier?" Elizabeth asked sadly.

"In our world we consider anyone over the age of seventeen an adult," Harry shrugged. "But I suppose one could say that I was one."

"If there is nothing else to be discussed here," Kingsley said once the questions had stopped coming. "I call this meeting over. Thank you all for coming and please be sure to be present once the voting for the council members will take place in one week. The voting will happen here, but we will make sure that everyone will know about any possible changes made to the plans."

As few in the stables and in the benches started to sit up, a woman spoke loudly over the crowd. "Mr. Potter, is it true that you are a Corun Án?" she asked, making few people stop in mid sitting up and settle down again.

Harry sighed and leaned forward. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean that… well the people here have been speaking - and the elves will not even call you by your real name and instead call you _master Corun Án_," the witch said, glancing around before turning more serious. "Is it true, was there a Prophesy made of you?"

That caught everyone's attention and even the ones making leave sat back down again. Harry sighed heavily while looking at the people who were all looking at him. "Yes," he then answered, leaning back slightly. "It is true. A Prophesy was spoken about me few months before my birth. It was witnessed by late Headmaster Dumbledore and later taken into the Hall of Prophesies in Department of Mysteries." He raised his hand to stall questions when people started to speak all at once. "The Prophesy has been acted out already and all the recordings have been destroyed."

"So you _are_ a Chosen One?" someone in the crowd asked. "What was the prophesy about?"

"I think that should be somewhat obvious. The prophesy was about me and the Dark Lord," Harry answered, folding his hands. "And it was resolved in Hogwarts two days before we came here and is no longer an issue."

"Prophesies are debateable," someone in the crowd said with a frown.

"True, but this one acted out pretty much as predicted," Harry shrugged. "And before you ask, no, I will not tell you the prophesy or who predicted it. It is not relevant anymore. I might've been a Chosen One of a Prophesy, but I am not one anymore."

The crowd collapsed into murmurs but was cut short by a loud clack of a hoof against the metal floor. "Once a Corun Án, always a Corun Án," Entau said folding her hands. "And we centaurs still have several unresolved predictions made of you, Child of Stars. Your bend in destiny is far from being behind you."

Harry grimaced. "I really didn't want to know that," he sighed. "Any prophesies you would wish to tell me, Entau?"

"Not right now," the elderly centaur smiled. "Telling you now might affect how it all plays out in the future."

There was a moment of quiet which was filled with gently echoing whispers and murmurs in the crowd. Elizabeth was giving Harry a thoughtful, slightly disbelieving look and Harry could tell that she wasn't the only one who put little trust in prophesies and foretelling. He didn't care. He had been shaken and led by divination so many times that he knew where to place his bets on that matter.

"Mr. Potter, do you have the Wand of Destiny?" A middle aged wizard spoke out suddenly, making the quiet whispers of the crowd quiet down. "Those who witnessed your duel with You-Know-Who are all saying that you won the Wand of Destiny from him."

"Ah, not quite true," Harry answered, leaning forward. "The Wand of Destiny travelled by many hands, but Voldemort never truly possessed it. I won the wand from Draco Malfoy, who won it from headmaster Dumbledore by disarming him little before the headmaster's death. Dumbledore in turn won the Wand from Dark Lord Grindelwald in nineteen-forty-five. Voldemort only thought he possessed the wand because he claimed it from Dumbledore's tomb, but the Elder Wand is bit trickier than that, it needs to be claimed in a duel."

"But you do have the Wand?" the man demanded,

Harry sighed and pulled the wand from his pocket where he kept all three of his wands. "Yes, I do," he said while placing the wand to the table. Seeing the undisguised lust in the man's eyes, Harry narrowed his eyes. "You're free to try and claim it from me, sir," he said. "But it will happen in a duel. In order for the Wand to side with you, you will need to defeat me. Either by disarming me, or by over powering me… or by killing me."

Complete silence followed the words and as everyone stared at him and the wand, Harry stood up. "Everyone here is free to challenge me into duel for the Elder Wand, the Wand of Destiny, the Deathstick, whatever you want to call it," he addressed the entire hall. "All you need to do is to defeat me and the Wand is yours."

No one said anything for a long while, whilst Harry eyed the hall for anyone willing to take the challenge. "You'd have to be pretty goddamn mental to challenge someone who defeated Voldemort with a single disarming charm," Neville finally muttered. "But if anyone is insane enough, I want to be there see the duel."

Most people seemed to agree with that, there were even few people who were laughing at the idea whilst Harry took the Elder Wand and pushed it back into his pocket to join the two others. Whilst eying the now freely chattering crowd, he wondered if he should start wearing his wands more visibly so that everyone would be reminded about the Elder Wand. He hadn't been lying about the challenge - if someone would challenge him, he would duel. And if he would be defeated, he'd hand the Wand over happily. In the end, he didn't even want the Merlin damned thing.

Figuring that everyone had asked the questions they were going to ask, Harry moved to leave the table while the others stood up. "Kingsley," he called before the man could take off, and approached the Auror. "Why wasn't the mainland brought up in the meeting?" Harry asked softly so that no one else could hear in case Kingsley wanted to keep it a secret.

"Hooch is still testing the vehicles," the Auror explained. "We're pretty sure that they can take us to the mainland, but before we know for sure it's best not to say much about it. And…" he hesitated before taking Harry's arm and moving the both of them little aside from anyone. "As things are right now, if we let people know about the mainland, they might want to move there," he murmured in a low voice.

Harry blinked. "You think people would want to leave Atlantis and move to the continent?" he asked and thought about it. In a way it was viable concern. People were getting more comfortable with the city but some of them might've preferred to feel actual ground under their feet. for most wizards and witches, Atlantis was a strange, frightening place. "If they want to move out, shouldn't we let them?" he asked in low tone.

"Well, normally I would say yes," Kingsley frowned. "But Doctor Weir has been telling us some rather frightening stories about the variety of life out there and she has made us aware of just how vulnerable we are. We don't know much about the inhabitants of this galaxy, but we know that interstellar travel is possible in our own galaxy - and that there are some pretty nasty creatures there, capable of wiping populations right off the face of their home worlds without ever needing to even leave the orbit."

The Auror shook his head. "I don't want to take the chances with that. If there are hostile races out there - and it's rather likely that there are as one of them drove the Ancients themselves out of this galaxy - we don't want our people stranded in the mainland," he continued. "Atlantis is more protected, it has shields which we can probably bring up in case of emergency. It will take good fifty people firing spells at the Spellstones non-stop probably to keep them up, but it's better than they might have in the continent."

Harry frowned. "You can't keep the continent a secret for long, you know," he said.

"I know, but I hope we can keep it to ourselves for long enough to people to settle down _here_," Kingsley said. "The more at home they feel here, the less likely they are to leave."

"I suppose so," Harry murmured and thought about it. He didn't like it much but in the end he too would prefer people to stay in the city. Not only because the protection it offered, but because of the possibilities, because of what Atlantis could teach them. "You know, I don't think that many would want to leave. Life is easy in Atlantis, we have everything we need here," he said quietly. "Some might want to leave, but lot of us are only just discovering what this place has to offer us."

"Should we embellish that?" Kingsley asked thoughtfully. "Make people more aware of how easy life here is?"

"Well, I don't know about that. But at least here we don't need to find water sources, we don't need to build houses," Harry shrugged before frowning as another idea came to him. "I don't think that anyone will have any ideas about life in the mainland being easier than it is here. Actually I think the biggest concern here is that life in Atlantis might eventually end up being _too_ easy."

"What do you mean?"

"Eventually, we will end up being a bit pampered. We have free houses, we have free water and food, and even trading is easy and free eventually. And all that comes with very little work," the younger wizard explained. "But that's not what humans want. If it was, Earth would be a very different sort of place. People here might not even realise it, but they will want challenges, something to work with, work for, in their lives. Some might want to head to the mainland just because they want the challenge of trying to live there."

"That's… actually a pretty good point," Kingsley murmured. "You know, I sometimes wondered why magical world ended up being so backwards," he chuckled. "I'm a pureblood, of course, but I've always been able to tell that in some aspects, muggles have slight advantage over us. It's said that technology is their way of overcoming the lack of magic, but… I always thought that wasn't it. Some of that technology is pretty amazing and wizards don't even want to understand it. I think they made a subconscious choice to never use such technology because it would make life way too easy for them."

"Add magic to technology and…" Harry grimaced. Considering how much muggles used machines to do their work for them, and how much wizards used magic to make their lives easier, mixing the two together would end up something very wonderful. "And you never need to work for anything."

"And that would be pretty boring," Kingsley snorted. "Did you know that before Hogwarts Express they used Floo-network to transport students to Hogwarts? They did. Then they intentionally _downgraded_ the transportation with muggle technology so that it would take several hours."

"I wondered about that too a few times," Harry murmured. "I thought it had something to do with the whole journey thing - the train trip is as much part of the school as the classes."

Kingsley snorted. "No, I think they just wanted to make it more difficult," he grinned widely. "I once even heard about a kid who lived in Hogsmaede. Each year he used the Floo to get to Diagon Alley, then made his way through muggle London to get to Kings Cross and then he, like every other student, took the train right back to Hogsmeade to go to Hogwarts."

Harry snorted. "No way."

"I think it happened pretty often. Lot of students live in Scotland, but they all took the train from London, even though it might've been quicker just to _walk_ to Hogwarts," Kingsley laughed before frowning. "But we can't exactly add trains to Atlantis, now can we?"

Harry frowned. "I think…" he hesitated before nodding to himself. "I think we should consider doing what Elizabeth's people were intending to do," he said. "Explore this galaxy."

"That's, ah…" Kingsley frowned. "That's a pretty big step."

"Yeah. But it might actually be good for us. Not only will it most likely challenge us pretty damn well but… well. We need a new course of life," Harry shrugged. "In Earth the ruling idea of every life of every magical human was secrecy. Keeping us hidden from muggles, keeping magic and magical creatures and everything else hidden. We don't have that here. So we need something else."

"Exploration and secrecy are two wholly different things, Harry," Kingsley murmured.

"Yes, well… we've been hiding magic all our lives. It's a new world, Kingsley, a new galaxy. Why not spread our magic for a change?"

The Auror gave him a look like trying to figure out if he was brilliant or mental. "People won't like the sound of that. The rules they've been following all their live, the beliefs…"

"They all belong to Earth," Harry said calmly. "And this isn't Earth, is it? We already left the Ministry for Magic behind, so why should we keep following it's directives? We don't _need_ them here. We might be able to do some good, something wonderful, something none of us could do in Earth."

"Or we could possibly ruin this world, this galaxy, we might even start a whole new witch hunt except this one will stretch thorough entire galaxy rather than thorough few continents," Kingsley sighed. "I don't know Harry… that is a huge change from what we know."

"So is Atlantis. In the end it's just a suggestion, though. I know it might be too big of a mouthful for anyone here to swallow," Harry said. "But I think that at least little bit of exploration might be a good idea. Little leap into the unknown is good for the soul."

"I suppose you would know all about that," Kingsley murmured.

Harry shrugged. "Either way, I don't think you should keep the people here from knowing about the mainland," he said. "At the moment you're the closest thing to a leader we have. People need to be able to trust you, and considering how it is here, that is hundreds of times more important than the trust anyone ever had for any Minister for Magic," he shrugged. "If you start lying, and then people find out about it… it won't just hurt you."

Kingsley frowned and then sighed. "You're right," he murmured, running his hand over his bare scalp. Then he snorted, giving Harry a look. "I was right, you know. About having you serve as the Advising Councillor. You're already doing it pretty well."

Harry rolled his eyes and then looked away from the Auror and to the people in the Meditation Hall. They were all talking amongst themselves, making quite bit of noise. And not far from them, McGonagall was looking at them, seeming a bit irritated. "I think McGonagall wants to talk with you," he said. "And I want to exchange a few words with the centaurs."

Kingsley nodded and they parted way, the Auror looking very thoughtful and slightly troubled while Harry brushed the whole matter of his shoulders. Kingsley would figure it out, and in the end he was thinking what was best for the people. As long as he wouldn't take Dumbledore's route, he'd be alright. Instead of getting worked out about that, Harry thought about his own suggestion and then pushed it out of his mind as well. The idea of using magic freely and without secrecy was mind blowing, but in the end it was only an idea - and rather wild one at that. He rather doubted it would gain much popularity.

"Hey," Harry smiled while approaching Entau and Ronan who seemed to be talking about the hydroponics gardens. "What did you think about the things that were brought up?"

He and the centaurs talked for a while about the things brought up in the meeting, and about the council. To Harry's delight they were seriously considering the seat they had in the council - or Entau was, Ronan was just agreeing with her mostly.

"I think few of our herd should take lessons from Elizabeth Weir," Entau added with a nod. "We should know how to operate Atlantis as well. We cannot remain in the forest forever after all…"

"I'm sure room can be made for you," Harry nodded, happy to hear that the centaurs were going to take part in the city. He had been afraid that they'd remain in the forest and never come out, never interact with wizards willingly - rather like the centaur herds back on Earth. "And Atlantis can have a lot closer look at the stars around here too, that could help you with your arts, couldn't it?"

"Possibly," Ronan agreed. "We have never used tools in our arts. Only mallowsweet and sage…"

Harry nodded, remembering the classes with Firenze. Then his attention was drawn from him by the hand that tentatively touched his shoulder. "Harry?" it was Ginny. "I didn't want to bother you, but… could I have a word with you in private?" she asked. "It's… it's not important right now, we can talk later."

"It's alright," Entau answered for Harry. "We were about to leave anyway, we need to discuss what we have learned here with the rest of the herd."

"Yeah. I'll come by the garden later today, if that's alright," Harry said to the two centaurs. "I want to see how it's coming along." The centaurs nodded before turning and heading for the door. Throwing a last glance to their direction, Harry turned to the redhead. "Yes, what is it, Ginny?" he asked.

"Private," she smiled awkwardly, motioning towards the door. "Unless you have other people here you need to talk with?"

"Everyone here should know where to find me and if they don't they can just ask directions from the house elves," Harry shrugged and they turned towards the tall open doorway which led out of the Meditation Hall. "Besides I'm not really good at stuff like this."

"And yet they're making you a councillor - and I think it's a good idea," Ginny said, falling instep with him. When she reached for his hand, Harry entwined his to hers but for some reason a space remained between them. "I talked with Cho earlier today," she said. "We were checking the place where Oliver and his family are setting up the Quidditch pit at the same time. She said she had had a… talk with you."

"Ah," Harry murmured in realisation.

"Yeah," she agreed with a sad chuckle. "An _ah_ pretty much covers it."

"Ginny --"

"Can you Apparate us to your house?" She asked just as they stepped out of the Meditation Hall. "I would like to see it. And, uh…" she threw a glance at Lavender who was just walking pass them with Parvati, the both of them giving them a curious look. "And it would be more private."

"Yeah, of course," Harry agreed, clasping her arm a bit tighter and Apparating the both of them to the main living room of his apartment. "Would you like anything?" he asked while the witch looked around curiously. "Kreacher's stocked the kitchen for me, I can make a cup of tea if you'd like."

"No, it's alright. I… don't think this will take long," Ginny said while sitting down to the nearest couch. She patted the cushion beside her and Harry sat down as well. "I figured I should do this before you get busy with other things, like the council - and you're a _Corun Án_ too, now…"

"I don't get why everyone's saying it like it's a big deal," Harry sighed, leaning back. "It's just a translation of the stupid Chosen One name."

"Actually, it's the other way around. Didn't you know? Long before the Ministry for Magic was created, Corun Án was a viable position in the Wizarding Council," Ginny said. "It's a really old title… but, um, that isn't why I'm here at all." She turned to face him, taking his hands into hers and giving them a squeeze. "I don't think there's any gentle way to say this, so… I'll just say it. You're breaking up with me."

Harry blinked. "Wait, what? I'm breaking up with you?"

"Yes, you are," she agreed.

"But, um… if I'm breaking up with you, shouldn't _I_ be the one to say it? No, wait… _you_ should be saying that _you're_ breaking up with me, not that I'm breaking up with you," Harry said, giving the girl a confused look.

"Yeah, but that's the thing," Ginny smiled - and she actually seemed to mean it, the smile wasn't forced. "I don't _want to_ break up with you. But you're already doing it to me - except you haven't seemed to really notice. Now, I thought that giving you some time to sort things out would make things go back to normal, but you're… different. And it's been just getting worse the more time goes by."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked confusedly, though he had a pretty good idea what she meant.

"You're just… you changed. Before you were so closed, kind of secretive… wouldn't let anyone in unless they had somehow forced themselves in. Or just gotten damn lucky about it. It took me years to get somewhat close and even then I couldn't get as close as Hermione and Ron," she laughed sadly. "And now… now you're just blown open and anyone can get in now. You're letting people in left and right, up and down, asking and speaking and just _caring_ and whilst you do that…"

Ginny laughed, now more than just little sadly. Harry couldn't say anything for a long while and instead just kept staring at her as she chuckled. Her hands were holding onto his so tightly it hurt but he didn't have the heart to tell her to let go. "I'm sorry," he said instead.

"I've been trying to understand it. And I thought I did. Something happened to you. At first I thought it was Voldemort - that thing which happened in the forest, when you were… but that's not it, is it? That was just the start of it." Ginny glanced around. She was trying to hide it but her eyes were gleaming. "It's this place. And what we've been doing here, what we are here. We're _free_. And that's changing you."

She drew a shuddering breath. "It feels like I've been in love with a convict in a life sentence or with a dying patient… who suddenly got their freedom, their health back. And I'm supposed to be happy for it - and I am - but… freedom changes people. Or maybe this is the way you were supposed to be, the war just never allowed you to be… this, whatever you are now."

Harry sighed sadly and drew her into his arms, pressing his forehead gently against hers. Ginny chuckled thinly, trembling against him. "So, you're breaking up with me," she said. "Because you're changing and I can't keep up. And I need things to be solid. I need… I need a house and a old fashioned family with three kids and white picket fence, but you're… you're dozen adopted children, entire city of ancient alien technology, you're divination and diplomacy - you're the space and the stars and all the races in Atlantis, when I need a two story cottage and a messy yard and few screaming children."

"You're not making any sense," Harry smiled sadly, holding her close.

"Yes I am," she laughed and cried against his cheek. "And you're breaking up with me."

"Okay," he agreed with a trembling smile. "Okay."

"Good," she nodded, her smile slightly wet. "That's good. I'm going to visit you every other day and you're going to be my new best friend, and Teddy is going to call me Aunt Ginny because I'm around so often that he will for years think that I'm living with you. I'm never letting go of you," she drew a sharp breath, like a sob. "I'm just going to have my three kids with someone else."

"And a white picket fence," Harry nodded.

"That too," she agreed. "It's probably made of metal though."

With that said she burst into tears. Harry held her close for a long time, wondering if he was supposed to feel happy or sad about the whole thing. He decided not to try and figure it out. It wasn't important. For now he was just going to hold her and pretend he understood why this was happening.

Or more likely, pretend that he didn't.

x

My favourite chapter so far. I know some of you want more action than I've offered you so far, but sadly there isn't going to be any. This is a story of that boring stuff most people skip over in their fics, because I just like writing that boring stuff a lot more than I like space battles and wars and interplanetary conflicts. I'm bad scifi writer like that. If you don't like it, I'm sure there are other crossovers you can read. Try browsing the "Harry Potter and SG1" community, in the "General communities" section. They have wonderful selection of crossovers there. On that note, I shall be changing the gategory of the story, as very little "Adventure" is happening.

Quick question: Should Teddy Lupin be a werewolf or not? In canon it's said he's not, or implied anyway, but in wonderful world of fanfiction everything is debateable. So, Yes or No? I'm going to go by majority vote and it's going into the fic.

My apologies for possible grammar errors and such. If you notice any which are glaringly obvious, feel free tell me so that I can correct them.


	6. VI, Growth

**VI chapter**

It didn't really come as surprise to anyone that Harry was voted the Advising Councillor of the promptly made Council of Atlantis. The only reason he wasn't made the Ruling Councillor was the fact that Kingsley had suggested the neutral position for Harry in front of everyone. Harry wasn't too thrilled about his new position, but with Kingsley as the Ruling Councillor, McGonagall as the Teaching Councillor, Elizabeth Weir as the Learning Councillor, Sprout as the Farming Councillor, Entau as the Divining Councillor and Annie Hall as the Trading Councillor, his request for resignation was quickly denied.

"We will most likely need to make new councillor positions before long," Kingsley mused when the final vote had been counted and the seven member council had been established. "For healing, for potions making and for science, once they will gain more popularity. Possibly for other fields of study as well."

So far, though, the aspects of the council were pretty simple.

The Ruling Councillor oversaw everything and led the council and all its meetings - so Kingsley was basically a lesser form of a Minister for Magic. He had the final say in everything though of course the rest of the council could overrule him. But give the way Kingsley was, that would unlikely be necessary.

The Teaching Councillor governed all the aspects of Atlantis that had anything to do with magical schooling and teaching - so it was just another way of saying that McGonagall was the headmistress of the school of Atlantis. Of course McGonagall wasn't just a headmistress, but that was given. The headmaster of a magical school always had little more say than a headmaster of a muggle school for obvious reasons.

Elizabeth's position was a bit trickier, she oversaw all exploration, study, experiment and anything else that had anything to do with Atlantis and ancient technology. She was extremely happy with the position as it was basically what she had been doing when she had arrived to Atlantis as part of her expedition. Amusingly enough, Hermione was Elizabeth's first official member of staff.

Sprout's position was rather obvious. She was in charge of all agriculture of Atlantis from the outdoor gardens to the upcoming hydroponics gardens indoors. In a weird sense, she had more power in Atlantis than anyone else because she held all the food in the palm of her hand - but Sprout being the way she was… well, she was never going to misuse that power. The official position however gave her more say in the matters of Atlantis, and very soon after the nomination, the farming in the city got bit more determined.

Entau's position was more ambassadorial than anything else. She was the spokesperson of the centaurs among the council. She mostly worked with Sprout as they were cultivating the pier together, but it was her job to bring forth any possible predictions or warnings the centaurs might have. Entau also expressed the wish for the centaurs to integrate in the city a bit better. Amazingly enough, it seemed that some of the herd wanted to learn to understand technology.

At the beginning they had thought that Theodore Magee would become the Trading Councillor, but the man had declined the position in favour of working on projects like the Spellstone. So, Annie Hall, who seemed to have the right mind, was made the Trading Councillor. She took her duty very seriously and not much after her nomination, the very first trading degrees of meditation hall were established and some of the shops were opened soon after.

Harry's position in the council was both the weakest and the strongest. He was only an advisor so he didn't have aspect in their daily life he would be governing. He was however the neutral party in the council, the one whose vote came the last - and being the seventh member, his vote would be the most important one in case the six other members would end up in stalemate. Right now it wasn't as heavy duty, as it seemed as the council seemed to be pretty much one mind about all things and with little discussion everyone came to agreement easily enough, but one day he would have to make tough choices which might alienate people from him.

And considering that he was also turning into the counsellor of Atlantis, that could do more harm than he could predict now.

In the end Harry embraced both the position in the council and his future as the counsellor because it seemed like he just fit into the two positions and no one else was willing to take them. Or if they were - when the idea of the Advising Councillor had sunk in, it had gained quite bit interest - they couldn't be neutral about it. Harry wasn't sure if he could either, but he knew that he could try.

That didn't mean he himself didn't seek advice about it, though.

"I think the council will work," Luna, who was becoming Harry's personal counsellor for some reason, said calmly after Harry had asked about it. "You removed money from Atlantis. Who knows if that will do more harm or good, but right now… Well. Governments often fall because of greed and the council seems pretty un-greedy," she smiled at him. "And you're the least greedy person I've ever known. You'll do fine."

"I hope so," Harry sighed. He couldn't help but think the times far, far ahead of them. Fifty, sixty years into the future when they had established life in Atlantis to the point where it all would be natural and normal. Now everything was so alien that they were treading very carefully, but one day… one they would be more comfortable. What would the council be like when survival wouldn't be the driving force?

"Just keep your mind in the present and stop worrying so much. Take things as they come, enjoy the moment…" she chuckled. "And you'll be alright."

"I'll try," Harry promised. "I'll definitely try. I'll try being impartial councillor and good counsellor…" he snorted at the two titles. Councillor and counsellor. "How did I get into things like this?" he asked half amusedly, half mournfully.

"Good luck," Luna said serenely and Harry wasn't sure if she was stating a fact or telling him that he would need it.

He did intend to try, though. Too many things hung in the balance and he couldn't afford to be lazy or complacent. Especially not if people would eventually approach him in hopes of finding help for their personal issues - it was already happening and the longer he would go without knowing how to deal with it, the more damage he would cause.

That is why, even whilst receiving lessons from Elizabeth about ancient language and technology, he approached Pomfrey and Slughorn.

"A mind healer?" Slughorn asked somewhat disbelievingly while Pomfrey was giving extremely thoughtful look at the younger wizard. "Harry, my boy… that's quite ambitious, don't you think?"

"We need one around here and what can I say, I just seem to fit the position," Harry said, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't really need to be extremely skilled one, just… I just need some knowledge about it so that I can do my job properly."

"Mr. Potter… Harry," Pomfrey said with a frown. "You know that I am merely a school matron. I am not as qualified as a healer as, for example, St. Mungo's healers. And I have never studied mind healing seriously."

"But you know spells, right? Calming spells, soothing spells, you know how and when to give dreamless sleep potions to patients and things like that," Harry said before turning to Slughorn. "And you know how to make them. You can teach me Occlumency and Legilimency in case I will need it." They were still giving him somewhat unconvinced looks. "Listen, you don't need to teach me to be an expert. Just give me _something_ I can use. And if you can't, then at least tell me what books to read."

They had still remained rather sceptical about it, but both had named good number of books Harry could check out once they would get the Library of Atlantis up and running. Slughorn had directed him to good books about mental magic and ones about potions which dealt with the mind, whilst Pomfrey had done the same about healing spells and techniques.

"Pince should be making a specific wing for healing arts in the library," Pomfrey said. "You should be able to find more books there. I'm sorry I can't name any books which have to do with mind healing, but frankly I don't know any."

"This will get me started," Harry assured and smiled at the two. "Thanks."

Of course with that route of action there was a little problem. Harry really wasn't the reading type. The fact that the texts were all heavy with healing and potioneering terminology didn't help at all. And of course while trying to learn how to understand what the foreign language of medicinal terminology meant, he was trying to learn how to read, write and speak a totally different language all the while learning computer terminology.

"Alright, that wasn't… bad," Elizabeth, possessing the patience of a saint, said not for the first time during one of Harry's lessons. "Let's try another sentence, shall we? Translate this sentence to ancient. _All I have seen in my long years, I forget in an instant and marvel the vastness of the universe._"

Harry sighed heavily and frowned. "_Omnis ego vide - videa…_" he hesitated but Elizabeth nodded so he continued. "_Omnis ego videa en mei diu - _wait, I don't know the word for year, does _diutia_ work?" he asked.

"_Diutia_ works and the word for year is _ann_," Elizabeth nodded amusedly. "Keep going, you're doing pretty well so far."

"Okay, um… _mei diutia ego oblivius_ - no, wait, that's not right," he frowned and tried to continue. "…_ego oblivio en statio_… _ut miro ingeni universium_. I think. Did I get it right?"

"That was very good, Harry, though you got the word for universe wrong, the right word is _avernakis_. So the full sentence is _Omnis ego videa en mei diu annu ego obvlivio en statio ut miro ingenia avernakis_," Elizabeth said, speaking the ancient sentence perfectly and with a distinct accent of a person who had much experience with it - not awkwardly and with a stutter like Harry. "Well done."

"Ugh. _Avernakis_, right. Where did you come up with that sentence?" the wizard asked, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "Sounds like bad poetry."

"Good poetry, actually. Ancient poetry from a very famous ancient poet - his work was remembered for tens of thousands of years, very famous in the ancient circles… but I guess you don't really care," she chuckled while motioning at the ancient crystal version of a black board behind her, to which she had been writing with a matching crystal pen. "You feel up to trying to write it?"

"Merlin forbid. I haven't gotten the hang of the spoken language yet, not to mention about the written one," Harry sighed. Ancients had weird way of writing too. The letters were blocky and awkward and it took minutes just to write one word. But then, they had never written anything by hand - all writing they did was on computers and crystal screens.

Elizabeth chuckled. "For a person with no prior interest in language studies, you aren't doing that bad," she assured while sitting beside him. "Hermione has the advantage of knowing bit of Latin and studying ancient runes, you don't have that. So the process you've made so far is remarkable."

"Doesn't feel like it," Harry sighed and glanced at her. "When you were with the ancients, how did you do it? How did you handle it, being thrown into a society of aliens who spoke completely different language?"

"It wasn't as difficult as you might think. Well, the first few days were bit tough, I admit that," Elizabeth chuckled. "But I had studied the ancient language for months previous and I had studied Latin for years - and Latin is based on the language of the ancients. So after I got the hang of it, it wasn't too difficult."

Harry snorted. "And there was the tiny helping factor of you being a bit of a genius," he muttered, shaking his head. "I'm sorry for being so cross, but I guess I'm bit unadjusted to studying. For the past year I was mostly just running around and now I'm back in school." He sighed softly. "It'll take time to get accustomed to it again."

"So it's true that you've started to study to become a, what was it… a mind healer?" Elizabeth asked curiously.

"Well, it's bit unofficial," Harry murmured. "We don't have a mind healer here and no one but a mind healer can teach someone else to be a one. I can only learn some tricks commonly used by mind healers and then use them in counselling people around here. Or so I hope."

"Mind healers are your versions of psychiatrists?" the woman asked. "Or do you know what a psychiatrist is?"

"Yeah, I do, and I suppose that's good comparison," Harry agreed. "Although, mind healing is less about examination, talking and solving mental problems by doing whatever is usually done in psychiatry and more about going into person's mind, finding what's bothering them and… dealing with them."

Elizabeth stared at him with shocked confusion. "So it's like telepathy?"

"Well, some of it. We have two mental arts which I suppose are our version of telepathy. First is Legilimency which, to put it crudely, is mind reading. And then there is Occlumency, which is the art of defending the mind from things like Legilimency," Harry chuckled. "Amusingly enough, Legilimency bit of a taboo, it's balancing on the edge of being a Dark Art and yet, in the same time, it is one of the most difficult healing arts there are."

"I see," Elizabeth murmured with wonder. "So, if you learn this Legilimency… can you read people's minds? All their minds?"

"Legilimency isn't at all like the common concept of telepathy," Harry shook his head. "It's not another sense of hearing, it's a spell. A Legilimens, a person skilled with the spell, needs an eye contact to delve into a person's mind and a wand to cast the spell with. Sure, there have been few who can do it wandlessly, but it takes decades to learn that. And, of course, if your Occlumency is good enough, a Legilimens cannot get in no matter how good they are."

"Is Occlumency also a spell?" the woman asked thoughtfully.

"No, Occlumency is a mental discipline, an art. It's rather like muggle meditation actually, but much, much more difficult," Harry chuckled. "The idea of Occlumency is that if you clear your mind of everything - and I mean everything, thoughts, emotions, memories, magic, everything - then your mind can overcome anything and nothing can get in… Legilimency has no chance of penetrating it because Occlumency is the perfect defence and in the end Legilimency is only a spell. Very powerful and very flexible spell, but still only a spell."

"That sounds…" Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. "Do you know Occlumency? Can you do it yourself?"

"Ah, no. I'm a afraid not. I tried to learn it once and I know the techniques, but it's next to impossible to learn," Harry laughed. "Though my teacher sucked, that might've had something to do with it." And he had had a Horcrux in his head making it impossible for him to shut it down.

Elizabeth regarded him thoughtfully before running her hands through her fine white hair. "The ancients…" she murmured, trailing away. "They had a… goal in life. As people they were incredibly advanced, both technologically and physically. But many times they almost died, by a war, by a plague… So, they came up with a way of transcending the weaknesses of flesh. It's called Ascension, evolving from physical form to a form of pure energy."

Harry blinked confusedly. "I think I've heard of it," he murmured. "What about it?"

"Well, the Occlumency you describe sort of sounds like the most commonly known techniques of Ascension. Deep meditation, of going beyond thoughts and emotions. Of course you need to be physically very evolved to actually ascend, but…" she looked at him thoughtfully. "You have abilities that go far beyond those the ancients had. They had telepathy, healing, telekinesis, but nothing like what you have… in that sense, you're more evolved than they are. And you have Occlumency…" she licked her lips in thought. "Has any of you… ascended?"

Harry thought about it. "I don't think so," he then answered. "Not that I know of anyway. It might've happened, as we have ways of sort of cheating death. We have ghosts and spectres..." he frowned, thinking Voldemort. "But I think I would've heard if someone had turned to pure energy by means of Occlumency."

Elizabeth gave him a look and then frowned. "Those who ascended become nearly all powerful, all knowledgeable and immortal in their new form…" she said, trailing away. "You don't seem very interested, though."

"I'm not," Harry shrugged. "I wouldn't want to live forever. I want to live through this life and then I want to die normally."

"You _want_ to die?" the woman blinked, as if what Harry had said didn't make any sense.

"Well, not _now_. I would prefer to die as an old man, maybe surrounded by three, four younger generations of my lineage," Harry shrugged. "Something like that."

"No, that's not what I…" Elizabeth started and then shook her head. "I'm… I'm sorry, but I would rather Ascend than die," she said. "I guess I didn't explain the Ascension well enough for you to understand --"

"You don't need to explain it to me. If by Ascending you keep on _living_, then I wouldn't want it," Harry said calmly. When she kept on giving him a confused look, he chuckled. "Dying is the only way to get to Afterlife. And I have lot of people waiting for me there - people I intend to see again."

Elizabeth opened her mouth, closed it and then tried again. "You believe in Afterlife?" she asked somewhat curiously.

Harry chuckled. "For me it's not a matter of faith, Elizabeth," he said. "I _know_ it exists."

"You know… how could you know? You, you got some sort of proof?" the woman asked.

Harry hesitated for a moment before making a decision. "Sort of," he chuckled while standing up and stretching. "Back on Earth we had two items which could be used to communicate to the dead. First was the Archway of Death, direct gateway to the Afterlife. Looked like stone doorframe with old tattered curtains hanging of it. I don't think anyone knew how old it is, how it was made, or by whom, but we knew what it did. One step through it, and…" he trailed away and chuckled. "My godfather fell through in a battle. We couldn't even bury him because the Archway took all of him."

"I'm sorry," the woman murmured, though she looked more confused than apologetic.

"Well, it was quick and painless death for him, after not so quick nor painless life," Harry shrugged. "I remember when I went close to the thing. I could hear people inside. Calling. Voices of the Afterlife…" he thought about it for a moment before shrugging. "Anyway, the Archway was just one thing. The other, more powerful artefact we have, is the Stone of Resurrection."

"Resurrection? You mean it could bring people back from the dead?"

"Oh, no. Nothing can bring back the dead - not really," Harry shook his head. "But the Stone can bring back something. Less than alive but more than a mere ghost. Physical enough to touch but… not really there."

"And… it's commonly used, this stone?" Elizabeth asked confusedly.

"No, not quite. For centuries the Stone has been more or less a myth. Only one person had ever used it, it was said. The Stone's maker. He used it to bring back a loved one," the wizard shrugged. "After that it was lost in time. I think it was passed on from parent to child and either the creator never told his children how the Stone worked or they themselves forgot what the Stone was. In the end thought that it was a mere relic, just an old, neatly cut stone with a emblem in it, not even valuable."

He lifted his hand and eyed the ring of resurrection thoughtfully. "They put it in a ring," he said, turning his hand so that Elizabeth could see the cracked stone. Her eyes widened. "Aside from it's creator, I'm the only person who has ever used it. And now you're the third person aside from myself who knows that I actually have it. Hermione and Ron are the two others."

"That is… you can call back the souls of the dead with that thing?" the old woman asked softly, reaching her hand to touch the dark stone in the ring. "Who… who did you call back? No, that's… too personal I guess. Why is it broken?"

"It was possessed. One of my teachers broke it open with a sword to get the spirit out of it," Harry answered. "He left the ring to me in a will when he died. In the battle at Hogwarts just few days before we came to Atlantis, I used it to call back my parents, my godfather and Teddy's father," he smiled. "They were with me only for few minutes… but I know they were real."

"You haven't called them back afterwards?" Elizabeth asked softly. "Aren't you tempted?"

"Nah, not really. I know they're watching me and I know we have all the time in the world to talk once I die," he shrugged and stood up, eying the ring. It really was quite ugly, being cracked open as it was. "Hmm, I wonder…" he muttered and pulled the ring from his finger. Then, taking out the Elder Wand, he tapped it against the ring, murmuring a repairing charm under his breath. With a sharp click, the stone resealed itself, making the Hallows sign complete again. "Hm. That should be better."

"Why didn't you repair it before?" Elizabeth asked.

"I haven't really given it much thought," Harry shrugged his shoulders while slipping the ring back on. "I don't care much for the ring. I know the risks there are in things like these. You could lose yourself in the attempt to bring back the dead. The Stone's maker did according to the stories. I would've left it back on Earth, but Hermione felt we might need it," he pushed his wand back into his pocket.

Elizabeth smiled softly. "Why didn't you lose yourself?"

"I had a good teacher in matters like that," Harry shrugged. If Dumbledore had taught him something useful, it was to leave well enough alone.

"You wizards have the most interesting talents and equipments," Elizabeth murmured. "I always thought that technology was… the pinnacle of power, knowledge and advancement. But here you come, people with no technology, capable of all this…"

"It's not exactly a good thing," Harry mused. "Well, it might be, sometimes, but… If we had all gone bad, not just one or few of us but all of us… there's pretty little your side would've been able to do."

"Well not yet. Give us a decade and we can wipe the floor with your kind," Elizabeth grinned smugly. "Our side has alien technology."

Harry laughed in agreement, nodding his head. He could almost imagine it, what would've happened if Voldemort had came ten or so years later instead of exactly in those years _before_ the Stargate Program. Few odd incident, random collapsing bridges and Dementors in a little village, and he would've been swarmed by very elite muggles wielding powerful weapons he couldn't understand.

"Why did you tell me?" Elizabeth asked after a moment of silence. "About the Stone, I mean. If it really works the way you say, then… anyone would want it. Why tell me when it's so… volatile?"

"I don't know," Harry murmured thoughtfully. "I guess I needed someone to know who would understand it," he said and shrugged his shoulders. "Hermione and Ron know but… I don't know. They stopped understanding it. They used to see it as a threat before, but now… Hermione sees the ring now as means to an end, and Ron sees it as a way to bring back his brother…"

"And what if I don't understand?" Elizabeth asked.

The wizard laughed. "You, who speaks of Ascension?" he asked amusedly. "Of course you understand."

The elderly woman tilted her head in thought and then chuckled. "Good point."

"I'm known for having a few at times," Harry nodded before giving the large crystal screen a thoughtful look. Then he sighed. "Shall we continue the lesson?"

"Sure. Just one more thing…" the woman regarded him thoughtfully. "Do you know where your powers come from? Your magic?"

"Where magic comes from?" Harry asked confusedly before shaking his head. He had never really thought about it. Some might've, but he had never cared. "I suppose there might be some science behind it, but I don't really know. For me magic just is and we just have the ability to use it. It takes years and studying to learn how to control it, but…"

"Can you get tired from using too much magic? Is there a limit? Can you run out?"

"Not that I know of. No, I don't think I've heard of anyone who ran out of it. It can get bit tiresome, casting difficult spells or to try and control some spells - and some spells are just hard to maintain. Some spells are hard to get right too, it can take years to learn how to cast a single spell. Like Legilimency for one, no one could ever get it right on the first try."

"So, magic is not at all as easy as it seems… interesting, " Elizabeth murmured before standing up. "Well then, let's continue," she said, walking back to the crystal screen and bringing up more ancient text. "Translate this sentence to English: _Libente ego desii omnis lucrum eni singu conspic…_"

x

One of the many great things that happened around Atlantis at that time was the full opening of the Meditation Hall. Sure, few of the shops opened earlier than others, but the full opening of the Hall was only done about three weeks after the Council of Atlantis had been established. The so called opening ceremony was pretty simple, as they didn't have the resources for any full blown celebration. But even so most of Atlantis's population was there, with the exception of the centaurs who didn't much care, to listen Kingsley's and Annie Hall's quick speech.

After the quick opening ceremony, which had ended in spectacular spell bombardment at Meditation Hall's brand new Spellstone, people had examined the stores. Harry among them had taken look at every store from Madam Malkin's Robes to Magee Apparatus. He hadn't really traded for anything, but there had been something very rewarding in seeing the stores. It was like another milestone for their existence in Atlantis, another assurance that life would go on.

Naturally, as the day passed by, people started to gravitate away from the stores towards the drinking establishments. Meditation Hall had only two of them due to the fact that Aberforth Dumbledore had opted against restarting Hog's Head. The two which did open were Madam Rosmerta's and Madam Puddifoot's places, a pub and a tea house respectively. After checking out the tea house briefly, Harry gravitated towards the pup where he found a seat easily enough in friendly company.

"This is pretty nice, isn't it?" Neville sighed while Harry leaned back, staring upwards. They were sitting at one of the many tables Rosmerta had arranged around the entrance to her new and improved pub and above them they had the high glass ceiling of the Meditation Hall. "Really nice."

"Yeah," Harry murmured, closing his eyes for a moment and enjoying the sound. Soft chatter of the other customers - who weren't really customers as the pub no longer asked for payment - the soft flow of the water of the fountains and the silence of the night wrapping around them. It really was rather nice. "Peaceful."

"And, hey, free alcohol. That's always a good thing," Neville said and Harry didn't need to open his eyes to know that the other was grinning.

"Just don't get overboard, Mr. Longbottom," Madam Rosmerta said while walking past them with a tray in hand. "We have a limited supply of spirits until we get our share of the harvest and Aberforth can get the brewery properly up and running." She turned to Harry. "Can I get you anything, Corun Án?"

"I'd like some firewhiskey. _And_," Harry shot a look at the woman, "I'd really like people to stop calling me that," he said. She only smiled at him and he sighed. "Make it a small shot, would you? I'd like to be able to Apparate back home. Or at least find my way to a nearest transporter."

"I'll try to prevent you from getting too drunk, _master_ Corun Án. I'll be right back," she promised with a chuckle before walking away.

Harry snorted after her and shook his head. "Go figure," he murmured, allowing his gaze to drift over the crowd. All the tables outside the pub were taken - Harry had a feeling that Rosmerta had taken all the tables from inside and brought them to the Hall as well. No one wanted to sit in windowless room when they could spend their time outside in the Hall after all. It was nice night too.

"Aberforth Dumbledore, the brewer," Neville murmured to himself and chuckled while taking a sip of his whiskey. "Well, I suppose it makes sense, I think he brewed some of the stuff he sold in Hog's Head. And it's good to have a brewery here, otherwise we might end up running out pretty quickly." He snorted before nodding at the sign Rosmerta had attached above the pub's entrance. "What do you think of that?"

Harry glanced up. The sign was brand new and proud, proclaiming Rosmerta's pub's new name in bold blue letters. _Six Broomsticks_. "I think is evolution. I heard that Three Broomsticks used to be called One Broomstick once," he answered calmly while leaning back in his chair. "Also it's kind of fitting. Six piers in Atlantis after all. Nice homage."

"Six Broomsticks, twice as much awesomeness as Three Broomsticks!" Neville laughed, eying the sign for a moment before looking at the other drinkers. Then he allowed his eyes to drift away from them, and around the mostly empty hall. As his eyes landed to another cluster of tables in the other end of the hall, he chuckled. Following his eyes, Harry turned to look at the tables of Madam Puddifoot's Tea House, and chuckled as well.

"About damn time, huh?" he murmured, smiling at the sight of his two best friend. Blind and deaf to the world around them, Hermione and Ron were chatting away over a steaming pot of tea. They weren't the only ones who had opted for tea rather than spirits that evening, he could also see Fleur and Bill and few other familiar faces. Hermione and Ron together were a nice sight though.

"Yeah. Didn't take them longer than, uh, four, five years?" Neville murmured with some amusement while lifting his glass in salutation to the new couple, who of course didn't notice it at all. Then the scarred wizard glanced at Harry. "You could be there, you know. With Ginny."

The other smiled softly and shook his head. "Nah. Or, well, I could, but… well, it just doesn't work anymore, me and her," he murmured and looked up as Rosmerta returned with a new glass of firewhiskey. "Thank you," he said while she placed it before him. "By the way, Aberforth _can_ make firewhiskey too, right?" he asked. "Because it would be quite the pity if he couldn't."

"He can," she laughed. "But his firewhiskey is a spirit you need to handle with care. It's not even nearly as mellow as Old Odgen's."

"I'll keep that in mind once you run out of the usual stuff," Harry murmured. It wasn't like he had any intention of become a regular drinker, but it was still nice to know. "Thanks Rosmerta."

"No problem, Corun Án," she said cheerfully and laughed at the glare he threw at her way. "I could call you Advising Councillor, if that would be better?"

"What's wrong with Harry? Or Potter?" he asked mournfully.

"Not fitting of a man of your position to be called so casually," she chuckled and walked away to take George and Charlie their drinks.

"That's what you get for getting into politics, mister Advising Councillor master Corun Án Harry Potter sir," Neville teased, even throwing a loose salute into it.

"Tch. Barely politics when there is only seven of us so called politicians and none of us cares for politics," Harry murmured, thinking about the Council meetings he had attended. They had all been pretty quick and simple, nothing like he had imagined politics to be like. "And I'm just an advisor. And there is very little advising to be done around here. Mostly I just sit there and look pretty."

"Invaluable contribution to be sure," Neville chuckled.

Harry shook his head before giving the other a thoughtful look. "So, how are your parent's doing?" he asked thoughtfully. If Neville's family had the time to help others, they weren't taking all of their time, at least.

"I think they're doing better. I mean... they obviously won't be getting _better_ but I think... well, it helps, being out of hospital," Neville said softly. "They still don't recognise me, they barely recognise even grandmother anymore, but they seem a little happier now that they don't need to lying down all the time and everything's not, you know, boring." He smiled. "I took mum down to the pier just the other day. She had no idea what was going on, but she seemed to have fun. I'm gonna take dad the next time I have nothing more pressing to do."

"That sounds brilliant," Harry said, smiling. "I'm glad they're doing better. You seem to be doing well for yourself, too," he added, looking the other up and down. Outdoor work seemed to agree with Neville but more than that he seemed more relaxed and casual that he had been before. "You seeing anyone?" he asked.

Neville gave him a strange look. "What makes you ask?"

"I don't know. You just have a sort of look about you," Harry answered. "So, who's the lucky girl? Or guy, whichever."

"It's a witch, thank you very much," Neville laughed. "It's nothing serious yet, but, well… It's Hannah Abbot," he said and grinned. "She lives in the same floor as my family, she and her dad. Me and Grandma and Uncle Algie have been helping them every now and then, you know…" he lifted his eyebrows. "I am thinking of asking her out."

Harry chuckled. "You should - and I wish you the best of luck," he said while taking a sip of his whiskey. "I suggest something else than walk around the gardens though. They're very nice, but I think everyone has seen them dozens of times already."

"Hmm… true," Neville murmured, thinking about it. "Well, I'll think about something. Oh, and speaking of gardens, have you heard? They're bringing soil from the mainland now. Soon we have all the piers filled and we can grow gardens in all of them!"

"Yeah, I've heard about it in Council meeting. I even made one trip to the mainland myself," Harry chuckled at the memory of Kingsley's attempt to keep the mainland a secret. It hadn't lasted more than few days before everyone in Atlantis had known. Thankfully no one had shown any interest moving out of Atlantis yet - and though the centaurs had debated on it, they too had decided against it for now. They figured that since they had already started co-existence with humans, they might as well continue.

Turning his thoughts to his first official time at piloting one of the Atlantean ships, he smiled. Hooch had been there all the time, directing him, but even so it was been pretty incredible. The ships were incredibly fast and at times handled even easier than brooms. They literally read the pilot's mind and though nothing would ever be quite the same as riding a broom, piloting a ship was certainly incredible experience on it's own.

"How long do you think before they fill out all the piers?" Harry asked curiously.

"Not long, I think. It's just matter of making enough trips to the mainland to get all the soil - and this time Sprout doesn't want to engorge it like she did with the soil we brought with us from Earth," Neville murmured. "Few weeks I think, and we'll start planting. We're going to raise the seedlings and the sprouts in the Hydroponics gardens until they're ready to be planted to the piers, probably. We're going to keep the Garden Pier the same it is now, but Sprout is thinking of letting one entire pier grow wildly and let the Centaurs have it."

"They'd probably like that," Harry nodded. Even though some of the centaurs had tentatively started moving around the city - there was even one young centaur named Nolan who was taking lessons from Elizabeth which was rather weird - they still preferred to sleep outside in the gardens.

"The hydroponics will make it so easy. You know how fast plants grow in those gardens? With the fluids and with the spells - we have their growth accelerated with magic so you can _see_ with naked eye how they just grow," Neville chuckled. "Magic and technology together. It's… is just _wow_."

"Wow?" Harry asked amusedly, glancing away when he heard a thrum of music. Mr. Finnigan was trying his guitar near the wall.

"Yeah. _Wow_ pretty much covers it," the other nodded in agreement and raised his glass. "I'd drink to _wow_ but my glass is almost empty."

Harry chuckled and poured half of his whiskey to Neville's glass before lifting his own. "To hydroponics gardens where magic and technology work together, to gardens we're growing on a city sized space ship - oh, and to centaurs learning how use technology and to the hope we will see centaurs piloting space ships," he said with a snort. "To _wow_."

Neville grinned and they clinked their glasses together. "To _wow_," he agreed as much to everyone's delight, Seamus's father started to play. Neville glanced up and drained his glass. "Now excuse me," he said while getting up. "Think I shall dance a little."

Harry chuckled, looking after him as he headed to ask the nearest girl to dance. Neville had grown quite a bit in the last year or so, he mused as the formerly nervous wizard led Padma Patil to the open area for a dance. Then, noticing that Lavender and Parvati had also gotten up and that they were far from being the only ones, he smiled. Neville wasn't the only one who had grown.

"Care to dance?" a voice asked directly from behind him, making him jolt so strongly that of course it was Luna. "I haven't ever danced you know. Well, of course I have danced, but I haven't danced with someone. Not really."

"I'd love to help you there, Luna, but I have two left feet," Harry said, glancing up to the girl who was holding butterbeer pint in her hand.

"Don't be silly, Harry. You have one left and one right foot," she answered calmly.

"Well, okay, I don't have two left feet. But I have next to none ability to dance. No sense or rhythm. No talent in dancing," he shrugged. "I'd stomp your toes, probably."

"Hmh, alright," Luna said after moment of consideration. "I'll ask someone else then."

While watching Luna lead Charlie Weasley of all people to the floor, Harry chuckled under his breath. "Wow indeed," he murmured and drained his firewhiskey.

x

Lantea's day was twenty six hours and twenty eight minutes long. It's year, or the circle it made around the sun, was four hundred and eighty nine Lantea's days and five hundred and thirty nine Earth's day's long. Lantea's moon took for about forty four days between every full and new moon, giving the planet about five to six full and new moons per Lantea's year.

Unlike Earth, Lantea didn't have distinguishable summers, autumns, winters or springs - the planet's axis had no changing tilt, so the amount of sun it got was pretty much the same everywhere all the time. Only season it did get was the storm season which came around twice a year - and the mega storm season which came around once in every twenty or thirty years. The storm season was because Lantea's moon had slightly elliptical orbit, and twice a year it was slightly closer and caused stronger tides than it usually did which in turn exited the atmosphere. The reason the odd orbit didn't cause any bigger havoc on the planet was because, though Lantea's moon seemed bigger than Earth's moon, but it was only because it's closer to the planet. In reality, it's about five times smaller than Earth's moon.

Harry crossed his hands and stared at the time chart Andromeda had made. It was both simpler than any chart he had ever seen - and much more informing. In it's creation Andromeda and Sinistra hadn't used time tables or moon models or even telescopes. They had used Atlantis's sensors with the help of Hermione and Elizabeth, and the pre-existing records in the Atlantean database. That made the chart very accurate and very simple in its accuracy.

When the wizards had arrived to Atlantis, the moon had just finished it's six days of fullness and had started waning - not that many had really been paying any attention to the moon back then, they had been little too busy with survival. Now, however, it was becoming issue. In two days, Lantea's moon would be full once more and it would remain full for six days and nights straight.

"I figured that if anyone knew about any possible werewolves around here… it'd be you," Andromeda broke into Harry's thoughts.

"What do you think the effect will be?" Harry asked. "Not only on werewolves, but on us, normal wizards. Full moons affect us too, don't they?"

"Well… it's impossible to say. In earth wizards reacted to full moons different ways. Some would get raunchy, others very temperamental, and some weren't affected at all," the woman folded her hands. "Also, we have a certain planet here to worry about." She motioned one of the planets circling around Lantea's sun. "Lantea's solar system has thick asteroid belt here - which is fortunate for us - and it has eight planets, one of them a pretty active gas giant but thankfully it's in the other side of the belt. But the planet I'm talking about is this one."

Harry leaned closer to examine the map. He didn't know what asteroid belts or gas giants had to do with anything, but decided not to ask. The planet Andromeda was pointing was one of the inner planets - little closer to the sun than Lantea. "What about it?"

"It has an atmosphere," Andromeda grimaced. "And I mean breathable atmosphere."

"And that is… bad?" Harry asked.

"Well, in some cases it might be good, some cases it might be bad, but what we consider breathable to us is also… well, it affects magic, bends it. So far we only know about the effects of breathable atmosphere has on magic because _ours_ protects us from certain elements, and from being affected too much by other celestial bodies. It has lot to do with magnetic fields, too, but never mind that. We have _no idea_ what another liveable planet in the solar system might do to our magic. The gas giant is bad enough, though we have to be thankful as it acts as a asteroid catcher, but... well, with that little planet in conjunction with the upcoming full moon…" Andromeda trailed away.

Harry blinked. "Okay, none of this makes much sense to me, but I think you're saying that the other habitable planet might affect the full moon," he said. "For better of for worse?"

"Impossible to say. This is a new situation for all of us," she grimaced again and looked up. "Do we have werewolves with us? Because if we do, I don't want to be anywhere near them when the full moon comes."

"I can believe that," Harry murmured with a frown and leaned back. He thought about all the people who might be affected by the full moon. They didn't have any real werewolves as far as he knew, but they had partial werewolves who had been attacked by Voldemort's werewolves when they had been in human form… "What about Teddy?" he then asked worriedly.

"He never experienced full moon back on Earth," Andromeda said quietly. "The full moon was only just coming when… well. When we left."

Harry thought about it before looking up to the woman. "Have you mentioned this to anyone yet?"

"Sinistra knows," Andromeda answered. "No one else."

"Good, keep it that way for now," Harry nodded while standing up from behind his desk. "We don't need to have werewolf prejudice added to our already existing problems," he said, glancing around his so called office - which was actually just one of his two living rooms with a desk added to it. Then he took out his wand. "I'll call up a council meeting. You feel like contributing to it?"

"Sure, if it helps," she nodded before watching how Harry conjured a Patronus and then send it away with his message. She smiled slightly. "You're getting better at this council business, Corun Án."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Can I keep this?" he asked, taking the chart of the solar system and it's time cycles.

"Feel free to, I can make another," she nodded. "How long do you think it'll take before the council will come together?"

"Half an hour or so usually," Harry answered. "Unless the others are busy with something else. I'm going ahead to the meeting room, you can come with me or I can call you later."

"Call me later. I want to check few things with Aurora before," Andromeda said.

Harry nodded and watched the woman Apparate away. Then, scrolling the chart and pushing it to his pocket, he headed out of the living room office and along the corridor towards the other living room. "Kreacher?" he called.

"In little master's room, master Corun Án," the elf called back and Harry headed to the room which had been furbished for Teddy alone. Harry and andromeda both had cribs in their room for the times when they were watching the boy but when Kreacher was in babysitting duty, he used Teddy's own room.

"I'm going to a Council meeting," Harry said, watching how Kreacher fed the baby. He smothered the urge to frown at the ragged cloth the elf was wearing. "You alright with Teddy for a while?"

"Of course, master," Kreacher nodded. "I will take care of the little master while you're gone."

"Alright, thanks," Harry nodded before turning away, wondering why it bothered him to see Kreacher wearing what he usually wore. The more time had passed since the bonding, the healthier and stronger the house elves had gotten. Now the rags they tended to wear seemed just… wrong.

While wondering if he could get the house elves to wear actual clothes, he Dissapparated to the control tower and to the meeting room there. Surprisingly enough, he wasn't the only one there - Kingsley and Elizabeth were already present. "That was fast," Harry murmured while stepping closer to the triangular table in the meeting room. As he placed his hand over it, it lit up. "I only send the Patronus a few minutes ago."

"We were in the gateroom. Elizabeth was giving me a lesson about the use of the long range sensors," Kingsley explained with a mild grin before turning serious. "So, you called a meeting? What for?"

"Andromeda just informed me that we have a full moon coming," Harry shrugged. "First one since we came to Atlantis."

"Oh," Kingsley murmured, frowning slightly while he sat down to his place at one of the corners in the table. "That's… that could be bad."

"Full moon?" Elizabeth asked confusedly. "Is that a problem somehow?"

"It might be," Harry said while sitting down to his place - also at a corner of the table. "We have at least two partial werewolves with us and one baby who might or might not be a full werewolf."

"Oh," she blinked with surprise and sat down slowly. "Werewolves. Right."

Harry smiled faintly while taking the chart and opening it up. While eying it, he couldn't help but wonder what would've happened if Lantea hadn't had a moon - or if it had had several. He decided that the twelve-week lunar cycle might end up being a good thing if the moon would have stronger effect than Earth's moon had.

One by one the other council members entered the room. McGonagall came with Sprout, talking about adding the hydroponics to the curriculum of the Academy. Annie Hall came alone and last to come was Entau who was muttering something about transporters under her breath while she stepped to her place at the Council table. Once they were all there, Harry quickly sent Patronous to Andromeda who Apparated into the meeting room about a minute later.

"You called the meeting, Corun Án," Kingsley said without further ado, ignoring the sharp look Harry sent to his way. There was a hint of humour in the man's eyes before he turned serious. "How about you explain what's this about?"

"Thank you, Ruling Councillor," Harry muttered and glanced at Andromeda who shrugged her shoulders. "It was brought to my attention by Andromeda Tonks here that we're soon going to have a full moon here in Lantea," Harry said, motioning at the woman while leaning back in his seat. "The first full moon we've experienced since coming here."

"And this is important because…?" Annie Hall asked, raising her eyebrows curiously.

"Because we have at least two partial werewolves and one potential werewolf here," Harry said calmly. "And we don't know exactly how they're going to react to the full moon. There are factors here which weren't present on Earth and the moon is different…" he motioned to Andromeda so that she could continue for him.

Andromeda explained simply and curtly the lunar cycle of Lantea's moon and the interfering factors. "We already know that we're being affected by the other planets in this solar system and the near by stars and constellations," Andromeda continued. "But cannot be completely sure how they're affecting us. And the habitable planet is a new element to all of us. It's impossible to say what the full moon will be like."

"We centaurs have also noticed the fluctuations in the sky due to the coming full moon," Entau agreed with a dark frown. "Some of us have finally begun to understand the stars of this galaxy and some of us… some of us can hear them sing, because of the coming full moon. Others, however, seem to have lost their ability to understand the stars completely because the moon blocks them."

Andromeda nodded as if it made complete sense to her, and it probably did. "This isn't even the worst of it," she said. "During the full moon following this one it'll be a storm season and the moon will be closer to Lantea. It's logical to presume that the moon's effects will be strongest then."

Kingsley nodded darkly. "On Earth full moon barely affects partial werewolves. Usually they just get temperamental and like their meat a little rarer than usually, but…" he murmured and looked up to Andromeda. "Do you think that this moon might… cause a stronger reaction?"

"It's possible. Or it's possible that they won't react at all," Andromeda said.

"I think it's reason enough to be concerned," Harry said. "We don't want potential werewolves running around during transformation cycle."

"Should we administer Wolfsbane?" McGonagall asked. "Just in case?"

"I wouldn't suggest it," Sprout said. "I'm not too shabby as a potions maker and I know my aconite inside out. Wolfsbane is very precise potion, made specifically for full werewolves. It does nothing for normal humans but it's impossible to tell what it could do to a partial werewolf."

"So we should just lock them up for the full moon," Annie Hall said, folding her hands. "That's what they did before Wolfsbane was invented, right? I'm sure we can find a proper place for that in Atlantis - and make sure that they won't be able to harm themselves or anyone else during the transformation if it gets to that."

"There are holding cells in Atlantis," Elizabeth entered the discussion. "They should be able to hold anything."

Harry nodded. "If the Council has nothing against it, I would like to take care of my godson by myself," he said and shrugged at the confused looks Sprout, Hall and Elizabeth gave him. "Teddy's father was a werewolf so it's possible that he's also one. He's only a baby, though, so if he changes he won't be as much of a threat. I should be able to handle him by myself."

"Are you sure?" Kingsley asked worriedly.

"Of course I'm sure," Harry frowned while Andromeda lifted her chin behind him. "And Andromeda's there too," Harry nodded towards the woman.

"Very well," Kingsley nodded and turned to Elizabeth. "Let's see these holding cells. In the mean time we need to talk to our partial werewolves. Harry, you know all of them, right?"

"As far as I know we only have two," Harry nodded. "Bill Weasley and Lavender Brown. I'll talk to them and I'll ask them if they know about anyone else."

Kingsley nodded. "Good."

"Just out of curiosity," Annie Hall leaned forward a little. "What will you do if your godson is a werewolf? As far as I know, only those of six years old and older can drink Wolfsbane."

Harry frowned. He hadn't thought about it as it hadn't really been an issue before. But now that he thought about it… what if Teddy really _was_ a werewolf? For Merlin's Sake, the boy was just little over three months old. "If he's a werewolf, I imagine I'll do the same thing my father and godfather did when they found out that their friend was a werewolf," he said determinately. "I'll try and become an Animagus to keep him company."

x

It didn't surprise Harry much that in the end it was he who had to convince the partial werewolves to containment during at least the first day of the full moon. It was a touchy subject after all, and apparently he was the one in the council who had to handle subjects like that, being the sort-of-counsellor as well as a councillor. But, as difficult subject as it was to address, Harry didn't mind. It gave him a chance to see how Bill and Lavender were doing other wise as well.

Harry found Bill with professor Flitwick, with plenty of other people including lot of teachers and other people who apparently were parents of possible students. They were in the recently discovered school building of Atlantis, the very same place where Elizabeth was now giving her Ancient language and technology lessons. Though the Academy of Atlantis wasn't open yet, they had already started establishing the classes and classrooms and study materials and such under the strict supervision of McGonagall and by the looks of it, it wouldn't take more than few more weeks until the school would be up and running.

"…in the past, but that won't work here, right?" one of the wizards in the room was saying when Harry entered. "Well, of course we could, but wouldn't it be just waste of time? I hear that muggles teach stuff like that in school, rather than in home."

"And schools can teach lot more than how to read and write," a woman wearing muggle clothes said. "I've been asking around and as far as I can tell, most wizards don't learn normal maths. Those who choose not to take Arithmancy in Hogwarts do not learn to count at all. Just finding a non-arithmancy student who knows how to add is a surprise! Not to mention about multiplication and such!"

"Besides, some of us have nonmagical children," one witch said quietly. "My youngest son, he… he was found a squib…"

"Ladies, gentleman, I can understand your concerns," Flitwick, who was standing on top of a table, said to the adjourned audience. "Headmistress McGonagall and I have already considered these sorts of matters and we have long since decided that the Academy cannot and will not be solely magical school. We are mixed community after all, even if majority are magical. Muggle subjects will also be taught."

"But at which time?" the muggle woman asked. "Muggle schools sometimes start as early as when the student is only four or five! It's scientifically proven that around six and seven, a child starts to enter the period of their life when they learn the best. If Academy only takes children of age of eleven… those good learning years will be wasted…"

Harry walked around the crowd as they continued to talk before reaching Bill, who was standing there with Fleur, listening. "What's this about?" he asked curiously, looking around in the room which was apparently going to be a classroom one day.

"Originally it was about whether Academy would teach only magic," Bill said, shrugging his shoulders. "It sort of escalated from there. Fleur and I came here to see if we could apply as teachers - there isn't much curse breaking to be done around here after all, and Fleur is hoping that French would be part of the curriculum…"

"Ah, I see," Harry nodded, folding his hands and watching the debate for a while. McGonagall and Kingsley had both suggested that he would also take teaching duties, wither with survival and self defence and subjects like that, or with the Ancient technology and language. Harry had so far politely sidestepped both matters because he was bit too busy establishing his stand as the counsellor. "What were you thinking of teaching?" he asked.

"Anything that I can I suppose," Bill sighed before leaning in. "I did also tell Kingsley that I'd be volunteering if he'd ever consider taking Madam Elizabeth's suggestion of exploring the galaxy, but the Missus isn't too happy about that thought," he said in carrying stage whisper.

"I think we've had enough life threatening adventures in the last few years, we don't need to continue on that path here," Fleur said sternly.

Harry nodded amusedly. "I suppose break from risking your life is merited," he mused, before glancing at Bill. "I'd like to have word with you in private. I can wait until this is over if it's important, though it won't take long."

"No, they aren't exactly covering what I had in mind at the moment and Fleur can fill me in later," Bill decided, motioning towards the door. Harry nodded and together they headed out of the noisy room, after which Bill stretched. "And I can use the break," he muttered. "Between you and me, working indoors has never really agreed with me so I am kind of hoping they can't come up with a job for me here."

Harry chuckled. "I'm sure we can find a more exploratory position for you here - if nothing else, they could use help in the mainland. It's enormous, and even with the information from the database of the ancients, it will take years for us to explore it."

"Hmm… that could be interesting," Bill agreed with a nod. "So, what did you want?"

The younger wizard hesitated for a moment, giving the elder one's scarred face a thoughtful look before sighing. Bill was a straightforward man, he'd serve no one circling around the matter. "There's a full moon coming - first one we've experienced here," he said. "And… whilst you're not a full werewolf… we don't know whether you are safe from it or not."

Bill frowned at him. "I had noticed that the moon's cycle here is longer but… you don't honestly think the moon here is strong enough to affect partial werewolves?"

"We don't know. There are other factors involved, planets and such… Andromeda explained it to me, but it went way over my head," Harry sighed. "But the point is we don't know. The moon might have no effect on any of us. Or it might have effect on all of us - the centaurs are already being effected, or their divination abilities at least are, so we can't exactly ignore the possibility."

The elder wizard nodded, pacing along the corridor a few steps and then sighing. "You want to lock me up then?" he asked. "If I turn into a werewolf…"

"At least for the first night, just to make sure," Harry said apologetically. "If the moon has no effect, we will release you and that's it. This matter will not come up again."

"Unless I go to a different planet and there is yet another moon…" Bill frowned.

"That's a issue we can deal with when and if it comes," Harry promised, looking at the elder man thoughtfully. "Will you consent to this?" he then asked. "I need to know now, Bill, because if you don't…"

"Then you're gonna force me?" the elder man asked and smiled. "You might be the boy-who-lived, Harry, but don't make the assumption you can take everyone in the world. Or in the universe. I think I can still give you a run for your money."

"You can probably wipe the floor with me," Harry snorted. He wasn't stupid enough to think that he could take a curse breaker in a fair fight, Elder wand or no Elder wand. "That wasn't what I was going to say. I was going to ask you that if you don't consent to this, then at least make sure you're somewhere you can't hurt anyone in case the full moon does affect you."

"Nah. I'm fine being locked up. I'll _much rather_ be locked up than attack someone as a werewolf," the red-haired man said. "When is it going to be? And where's the holding cells?"

"The full moon's in two days," Harry said before explaining where the holding cells were. "We're keeping this under wraps because we don't need a werewolf prejudice cause any panic right now, so only few people know. If you need directions, ask one of the council members."

"Will do," Bill said before frowning. "Do we have actual werewolves here?"

"Not as far as we know. There's Teddy, though he's still a question mark as far as that goes," Harry said. "I'm hoping that him being a metamorphmagus means that he didn't inherit Remus's condition. There is another partial werewolf, though. I'm going to have a talk with her too, she's going to be confined as well."

Bill nodded before motioning towards the room where the Academy discussion was going on. "I think I'd better… I need to talk with Fleur about this."

"Alright," Harry nodded and smiled. "Thanks for not throwing a fit, Bill."

"Yeah, well. If this place does turn me into a werewolf, you can have your fit and then some," Bill muttered while heading to the future classroom. "It's bad enough that we have next to none meat around here… bleeding vegetarian culture we're building up…"

Harry smiled after him before heading off to search for Lavender.

He found her in the gardens, after two hour search and eight cases of small talk with various people. Lavender Brown had, despite all odds, decided to work full time in the gardens, looking after the plantation, helping the centaur habitat and, naturally, learning as much as she could from Firenze. When Harry approached her, she was sitting with the centaur foal Ailil and together the two of them were listening to Firenze and Dympna, Ailil's mother, explain something about the clouds.

"… course, they are usually only good for foretelling weather patterns, and even then the predictions are never infallible," Dympna, with whom Harry had rarely any contact with, but whom he knew to be one of the few centaurs who did not predict by using the stars, was saying. "But sometimes weather can tell a great deal about future happenings. It's all in cause and effect. A star always affects the planet it shines upon - and that planet's weather, therefore…"

"Therefore weather is a reflection of the stars' predictions," Ailil quipped in happily.

"Precisely. And like with stars, same is true with weather: we do not affect them, neither the stars nor the weather. They affect us," Firenze said, peering upwards while laying on his belly among the rabidly grown seedlings. "Of course it will take us some time to learn to understand the planets of this solar system and the stars of this galaxy, but it's logical to assume that they will have similar affect on us as Milkyway stars and planets did. We need to merely learn to understand what sort of effect they have… these new foreign stars and plants"

"Moons too," Harry intersected while walking closer. He raised his hand in greeting. "Hello. Hope I'm not interrupting your lessons. The moons affect us too, though, don't they?"

"Naturally," Firenze nodded while Dympna bowed her head in greeting. "Good afternoon, Corun Án."

"Afternoon, Harry!" Lavender waved happily from where she was sitting cross-legged beside the little centaur foal, who was now hiding behind her and eying Harry with curious anxiousness. "Fancy seeing you outside. Don't you have a dusty office to rot in, you rotten politician?"

"Good afternoon to you too, Lavender," Harry laughed at her and glanced up to the sky. It was almost cloudless. "What sort of future does this sort of weather predict?" he asked curiously.

"So far only uncertainty," Firenze chuckled. "Give us a year's worth time to examine the weather patterns and we might know. So far Lantea gives us many, many mixed signals. However I think it's safe to say that tomorrow will be another beautiful day."

"Excellent. We can always use more of those," Harry chuckled and looked around. "The forest is growing beautifully," he noted.

"This one, yes. We will start working on the larger one in few days once the soil settles in," Dympna said while stretching her arms. "As the council has graciously let us keep one of the piers." The words were cutting but there was a teasing glint in her eyes.

"We'd give them all to you, if we didn't need to eat," Harry assured solemnly, but he was almost delighted. Some of the centaurs had been, in their own way, cutting loose, but to see one of them actually joking… it was incredible. "In return of your unforgivable confinement, we shall offer all our star maps and possible trips to outer space as consolation. And possibly throw in few leisure trips to the mainland. How does that sound?"

"I'll take the star maps and the leisure trips but you can keep your outer space… for now," the female centaur answered. "I'll take some ancient knowledge in it's place."

"You drive hard bargain, my lady." Harry grinned delightedly.

"Like a _human_? Why, I've never been so insulted."

Harry grinned while Firenze gave Dympna a look of surprise. "I see that interacting with humans has gone to all our heads," the male centaur murmured, shaking his head. "Perhaps this was a bad idea after all."

"Aw, don't say that, professor," Lavender chuckled. "You _like_ it."

Harry chuckled at the look Firenze gave to the girl before turning his eyes to his former classmate. "I see you're in high spirits, Lavender. Working outside agrees with you, then?"

"Well, it wasn't all I imagined, but I do like it here now," the witch nodded, looking up to the sun. She was once more wearing the sort of clothes that, probably very deliberately, hid very little of her healing scars. "When you're out here, it doesn't seem like you're living in a city made of metal - it seems like you're on an island or something. An exotic island." She chuckled, stretching her hands upwards. "And I'm getting the tan of my life out here!"

"Well, that's good I suppose," Harry mused. That wasn't the only thing. Lavender was probably one of the most well adjusted people in Atlantis, oddly enough. Harry had yet to hear a whisper about her complaining about anything, and here she was, despite all her former care for her outwards appearance, sitting in the dirt with some centaurs, without any care. They needed more people like Lavender in the city.

"Was there something you wanted, Corun Án?" Dympna asked after a moment.

"Ah yes. Partially I wanted to take a look at the gardens and partially I wanted to talk with you, Lavender," Harry said, glancing at his former classmate. "Privately if you wouldn't mind."

"I don't mind, but you might want to ask my teachers," Lavender motioned at the centaurs.

"It's not like we're having actual lesson here, Lavender," Firenze said while standing up and stretching. "We can continue after stretching our legs a little."

"Come on, Ailil. Let us get something to eat," Dympna said, standing up as well.

As the centaurs headed off, Harry scratched the back of his head, before sitting down beside the witch. "The centaurs seem to like you," he said.

"Yes, well… I've been helping around the habitat. Sprout taught me all the necessary growth enhancement charms, so I've been helping the trees to grow," she answered, motioning at the tall saplings around them. "These are pretty small still, but I've managed to make few of the trees around here taller than the centaurs are already."

"That's good, that's really good," Harry nodded. "The sooner they have comfortable place to live in, the better."

She nodded before looking at him and smiling. "You didn't come here to talk about centaurs and the garden, Harry. What's up?"

Harry chuckled apologetically. "The moon," he answered. "It's going to be full tomorrow night."

Lavender frowned slightly, touching the scars on her neck. "Madam Pomfrey said that I'm not a full werewolf," she said then. "Because Greyback was in human form when he attacked me."

"True. But being attacked by human form werewolf - or being bitten by one at least - still gives you a bit of the curse," Harry said regretfully. "True," he added when the girl opened her mouth to speak. "In Earth that would mean nothing. Maybe more meat on your plate, but nothing else. But we're not on Earth. The moon is different here. We don't know how that might affect partial werewolf."

"Ah… I hadn't thought of that," Lavender murmured, rubbing her palm over her scars. "You know, when Pomfrey said that I wouldn't be a werewolf, I was happy - almost proud. You know… I saved some of the younger kids, and I got scars to prove it. Battle scars! I know they're not pretty, but… I'm proud of them. Damn proud…"

"And you should be," Harry nodded.

"Yeah, but I know I wouldn't be, if I had turned into a werewolf," she snorted, pulling her knees up and resting her elbows on top of them. "I'd be ashamed for being less than human."

Harry frowned, not sure what to say to that. "Being werewolf isn't something to be ashamed of. It's… like a disease. Nothing more."

"Yeah, but becoming the same monster that attacked me… it's not exactly something to be proud of," Lavender sighed and chuckled. "So, what happens? To me, now, I mean."

"We need to put you into confinement, at least during the first night of full moon, to see how you react," Harry said, before quickly explaining; "You're not the only one, you know. There's another partial werewolf here, he's going to confinement as well. You'll be in different cells, obviously, but you're not going through it alone. And in the end it's just a safety measure, it's unlikely that you will change anyway."

"Yeah. Yeah, alright," Lavender nodded and chuckled. "I'll rather be locked up than attack someone." She was quiet for a moment before turning to look at him. "So, I heard you broke up with Ginny Weasley. Does that make you available?"

"Sadly it seems I'm knee deep in my duties at the moment," Harry laughed. "I'll get back to you on that once I've consulted my schedule. By the looks of it now, I won't be available in a while."

"Pity," she grinned and then looked up as sound of hooves pounding against the soil headed their way. "Ailil?" she asked as the little centaur came closer, slowing her gallop to gate. "Did you forget something?"

The little centaur shook her head before turning her eyes to Harry. She was holding something gently between her palms and all of sudden, that something was being offered to Harry's direction. The wizard raised his eyebrows before moving to sit on his knees to take a closer look. "What do you have there?" he asked, as it seemed that whatever it was, it was meant for him.

She opened her palms shyly revealing a bundle of leaves, and… a little winged toddler. Harry's eyebrows shot to his hairline while Lavender leaned forward with exited squeal. "A fairy?" Harry asked while accepting the precious bundle. "They hatched?"

"Oh, look at it, it's tiny!" Lavender gushed while the tiny creature stretched in Harry's palm, turned to the side, and settled down to sleep again. "Is it a boy of girl? Oh look at it's wings, aren't those adorable?"

Harry chuckled, turning his hands a little to take a closer look. "Looks like he's a boy fairy," he said while Ailil settled down beside them to examine the fairy infant as well. the wizard glanced at the centaur foal. "Did the rest of the clutch hatch too?" he asked. "Are they all okay?"

Ailil nodded with a grin. "He's for you, Corun Án," she said shyly, motioning at the toddler fairy in Harry's hands. "Because you said it was okay to bring them. As thanks."

"Really?" Harry asked with astonishment, looking down to the fairy. "I'm… I'm really flattered, Ailil, but I don't know how to take care of a fairy, especially not fairy infant. He's so small too, and I'm so big, I'd probably harm him accidentally" he said. "And won't his mother miss him?"

"She has the others and she doesn't even like him," Ailil frowned, looking at the fairy toddler. "She won't feed him," she muttered before looking to Harry with hopeful eyes. "I've been looking after him, it's not hard! He eats flower nectar and berry juice, it's really easy to get them, and he doesn't even eat a lot - and he sleeps all the time so you wouldn't even need to look after him - and fairies are like really durable! They can fall really far and not even get bruises!"

"Fairies grow fast too, as far as I know," Lavender agreed thoughtfully. "It wouldn't really be that hard, Harry. It's like… keeping a pet. And you might need something like that, being dusty politician and all…"

"I don't know if I have a time for a pet," Harry murmured, looking at the fairy thoughtfully. Then, glancing between Ailil's wide, hopeful eyes, and Lavender's _look_, he sighed. "Well, I suppose I could try," he murmured. He was already looking after Teddy pretty often - and he could always ask Kreacher to look after the fairy if he didn't have the time. "But if he gets sick or something like that, I'm bringing him straight back, got it? I don't want to keep him if I only end up mistreating him."

"Got it!" Ailil said happily.

"What are you going to name him?" Lavender asked eagerly while gently poking the fairy infant's blonde hair.

"Hmm…" Harry frowned before looking at Ailil. "How about you think of a name?"

The centaur foal looked surprised before smiling sheepishly. "I've been calling him Evvie," she said shyly.

Harry smiled, looking down to the fairy who was now lying on his back and blinking up to the wizard sleepily. "Evvie," Harry said. "I think it's a good name. Evvie it is."

Harry visited Hagrid about the fairy later on to make sure that he knew how to take care of little Evvie properly, but Hagrid gave him pretty much the same orders. As long as the fairy had some nectar or berry juice at hand, it would be the happiest little tyke around. According to the half-giant, fairies were pretty adjusting, so Evvie would probably be fine with sleeping anywhere. Fairies apparently made good pets too, because they were rather vain and liked to be admired.

"Let's hope you're as easy to look after as people seem to think you are," Harry murmured to the fairy while setting corner of his so called office for the fairy, even making Evvie a bed of leaves and flower petals before having Kreacher fetch some berries from the kitchen. The boy seemed content there, playing with a piece of a raspberry, so Harry left him to his own devices while going to study Andromeda's star map.

Half an hour later he found that Evvie already knew how to fly - or at least wobble through the air - and apparently Harry's hair made a cosy place to sleep in.

x

"You think this is enough?" Andromeda asked thoughtfully as she and Harry eyed the special crib they had made for Teddy for the full moon. It was much like a normal crib, except for the fact that the bars were made from the same metal most of Atlantis was made of and it had a very sturdy lid. "The bars are pretty thin - nothing in comparison to the holding cells."

"Even if Teddy changes forms, he's still only a baby," Harry answered, though he couldn't help but be worried. "If he's a werewolf, he's only a werewolf cub. He shouldn't be able to break through the bars," he glanced up to the woman with picking Evvie, who was dangerously sliding down his hair and placing him back to the top of his head. "Are you alright, Andromeda?"

"Yes, I am fine. Just worried," the woman sighed, looking down to the child she was rocking in her arms. "And hoping to any possible deity listening that Teddy isn't a werewolf." She was quiet for a moment before sighing. "You must think I'm a horrible person, but I hated Remus for being a werewolf and still going with my daughter's whims. He should've known better, he should've been smarter... he should've stopped the whole thing before it started. I almost challenged him into a duel when I found out that they'd gotten encaged."

Harry glanced at her and sighed. "When Hermione, Ron and I were on the run last year, Remus visited us. He wanted to come with us, help ups. He was thinking he had done a mistake with Tonks - that was when he'd found out she was pregnant. He was terrified that the kid, Teddy, would be a werewolf too."

"Well, he should've been," Andromeda muttered.

"When Teddy was born, he tried again. I sort of ripped him a new one over it and more or less kicked him out of the Grimmauld Place," Harry muttered with a sad smile. "Parents shouldn't leave their kids, never mind the reason."

They stood in silence for a moment, and while trying to steady incoherently buzzing Evvie on his head, Harry walked up to a near by window to glance at the sky. "It's getting dark," he muttered, peering past the building next to the apartment building and to the horizon. "You should put him into the crib. Soon it'll be dark enough for the moon to come out."

Andromeda hesitated for a moment before sighing and setting contently sleeping Teddy to the crib. She spend unnecessarily long time checking that the boy's beddings were right and that he was tucked in properly, before taking the grid lid and fitting it to place. One by one, the corner clutches were snapped shut, and then the boy was secured inside the cage.

"This seems a little inhuman," the woman murmured while pulling a bench closer and sitting next to the cage.

"It's as human as you can do in these circumstances," Harry said before moving to join her. He sat down too, and for a while they stared at the sleeping child, both dreading the moment he might change. Harry coughed. If they'd be sitting in silence the whole time, it would get awkward. "So, what have you been doing aside from working with the local astronomy?"

"I've been mostly working with that, but I've been having lessons with Doctor Weir on the side, and yesterday I spend a moment with Hermione's group working with the gateway," she said and then trailed away into explanation of wormholes and astrophysics and something called advanced long-distance spatial awareness. Harry listened without understanding more than a word here and there, but it was better to try to understand the advanced stuff than to sitting in uncomfortable silence.

Still, the wait was absolutely horrible. Eventually the conversation trickled away into silence, and though Harry tried to distract himself but having Kreacher bring him tea and the recent report they had from the continent - where few Order and DA members were exploring in hopes of finding certain metals, plants and animals that could be useful them - he still couldn't help but be painfully aware of Teddy the whole time.

"I suppose this is like waiting in St. Mungos to hear whether or not your kid has a terminal illness," Andromeda muttered while pacing along the side of the room. She stretched her hands and rubbed her lower back, glancing at Teddy, before walking up to the window. "How do you think it's going with the others?"

Harry thought about it and sighed. "Hopefully they haven't had any troubles," he muttered. He had barely been thinking about Bill and Lavender. "I... I think they would've sent me a message if they had transformed," he added hopefully.

"Hmm..." the woman answered and peered up to the sky through the window. "The moon's out," she then said.

They both glanced at the baby boy. Teddy remained asleep, dark violet hair seeming black against the white pillow. Though the sight of the contently sleeping baby eased the ball of anxiousness in Harry's chest a little, he knew they weren't out of the woods completely. "We need to keep vigil through night. To be sure."

"Of course," Andromeda nodded, but she too seemed a little more relaxed.

Eight hours, several cups of tea, and two sets of bloodshot eyes later, the verdict was in. Ted Lupin was not a werewolf.

x

Kingsley, when Harry found him later on, looked just as tired as Harry felt. He, with Molly, Arthur, Fleur, McGonagall, and Mr. Brown had been watching over Bill and Lavender through the night. Harry couldn't see the others, so they must've already headed to bed, but by the looks of the Ruling Councillor's face, the news were good.

"Bill grew a little more hair and if he wants to he can grow rather fierce looking sideburns now, and Miss Brown got rather snappy and demanded to eat a lot, but aside from that, I think we're in the clear," the dark skinned man said while sitting down with a yawn. "How did it go in your end?"

"Teddy's fine. Not even a twitch of his cute little nose thorough the whole night - though he did change his hair from violet to red before morning," Harry answered stretching his arms - and then quickly snatched Evvie who was trying to keep himself from falling by climbing up his ear. "We're gonna keep a close eye on him for the next five days just to be sure, but so far so good. And it's a damned relief too. I can't even imagine what his childhood would be like if he was cursed."

"Yeah," Kingsley said and gave him an odd look. "What is that?" he asked, pointing at the fairy.

"My new pet. One of the centaur foals gave him to me," Harry answered while setting the fairy child back to the top of his head, where it quickly grabbed ahold of his hair. "He still hadn't mastered the ability of not falling a lot. Or not pulling my hair."

Kingsley gave him a long look before snorting. "I must be really tired, as I can't bring myself to even make fun of you," he said and stood up again. "Get back to me with the fairy tomorrow and I will properly mock you, alright? I'm going to get some sleep. Tell them not to wake me for anything short of disaster."

"Tell them yourself, and I'm certainly going to avoid you tomorrow if you want to mock me," Harry answered with a huff before breaking into yawn. "I think I ought to find a bed to sleep too. Hopefully before someone decides that I need to do something for them," he muttered, hoping that Andromeda had found baby sitter for Teddy. He really didn't feel up to it.

"I know how you feel. Good night, then and congrats for not having a werewolf for a godson," Kingsley said, waving his hand before Disapparating with a crack. Harry grumbled after him before turning to head to the nearest transporters. Evvie got agitated when he side along Apparated him and he didn't feel like dealing with a fussy fairy right then

Of course he never made that far.

"Hey, Harry!" Neville's voice stopped him just as he was about to hit the button that would take him to the apartment building. "Hey, you got a moment? They just brought two shipfulls of soil from the mainland, and we're about to start filling another pier. We could use another wand hand."

Harry hesitated before rubbing his neck uncomfortably. "I kind of stayed up all night. Can't you get anyone else?" he asked hopefully.

"Probably, but I want someone I know to be good with the necessary charms - and to be honest, most people helping around the pier haven't mastered the art of levitation to the point they can move tons of soil," Neville said and looked at him imploringly. "Can't you just get a cup of coffee? It won't take long, just hour or two so that we can get the soil evenly spread. Please?"

"Uh... alright," Harry sighed. "Two hours, then I'm going to get some sleep," he said and grinning Neville joined him in the transporters and hit the spot on the map that would take him to the right pier. "How many piers have you filled up so far?" Harry asked.

"Three, with fourth almost done. Sprout's going to finish filling up that while we do the fifth pier," Neville answered, pausing for a moment as the transporters took them to the chosen location. "The soil they brought this time probably won't be enough to fill the whole pier, but if we can get majority of it, then that's fine too." He gave Harry's hair a look. "You got a little something..." he motioned at his own hair.

"I know, I know. It's a fairy." Harry yawned. "His name is Evvie."

"Why'd you got a fairy in your hair?" Neville asked, looking amused.

"He likes being there for some reason. One of the centaurs gave him to me," Harry shrugged, rubbing his eyes as they stepped out of the transporters. Then he followed the other outside, where two of the ships had landed next to the soil-area. People were levitating barrels out of them. "How much soil can you fill in one of those?" Harry asked curiously.

"About dozen metric tons, with extreme expansion charms," Neville answered. "The barrels have to be fortified though, so that burst open. You can fit about dozen barrels in a ship so each trip brings us nice amount of the stuff, but given the size of the piers... well it takes several shipfulls."

"Wow," Harry murmured and prodded Evvie back up when the fairy fell almost on his glasses. "So, what do you want me to do?"

"Just take a few barrels and open them," Neville said, motioning to where one witch was working. She had just opened the lid with a crow bar and was levitating the barrel towards the lower area of the pier where the soil was meant to go. Then she flipped the barrel around in the air. Harry almost jumped back at the sight of dirt rushing down out of the now tiny-looking barrel. Very soon it was piling up in the pier, making a rather impressive looking mount.

"See. Just take the soil out and once it's all out, spread it as widely as it will go," Neville said, folding his arms. "Once we've gotten the area spread, we will add some nutrients and such to it, and then another layer of soil is added on top of it. The watering system will eventually spread the nutrients to the whole are and we have a perfect place to grow just about anything."

"What are you going to grow here?" Harry asked as they selected pair of barrels from they ship and levitated them out of the ship.

"Wheat probably. We need crops," Neville said before frowning. "The problem is, as big as this place is, there won't be enough arable space or as much wheat, rye and such for the needs of all of us. We can of course grow vegetables herbs and such indoors and we're going to grow fruits and such too, but we need more grain than we can grow."

Harry made a worried hum while taking a crowbar and starting to open his barrels. "But we can sustain ourselves?"

"Yeah, we can live, but it won't be perfect - and it will be a disaster if we for some reason or another lose crops," Neville answered. "And if our numbers will grow - and they probably will sooner or later... it won't be enough."

Harry eyed the other. "You think we should to farm the mainland?" he asked slowly.

"I think eventually we don't have much a choice," Neville said and shrugged while accepting the crowbar from Harry. "Sprout is still working on other options, and so far we think we can make it with what we have. With engorgio charms and such we can stretch what we can get a little further after all, so for now we are not in danger of starving to death. But... eventually..."

"Hmm..." Harry nodded. The issue of the mainland would need to be addressed again. Though no one had yet - at least too loudly - expressed the opinion of wanting to move, people were having keen eye on the place. And there was never shortage of volunteers when people were making trips. Even now there was probably two dozen people there, exploring and checking the soil, plant life and hunting possibilities. If the farming would become an issue, someone would eventually rise the point of building houses and such to the mainland... which might make things a little difficult...

But maybe that was an issue that was useless to void. People didn't like to be shut in one place, and Atlantis wasn't supposed to be a prison, but place of freedom for their little society of refugees. Their safe haven. Dividing their people between the city and the mainland would be difficult, but... it was stupid to think of it as a difficulty. It might in the end be a good thing, actually - it would give people the chance to feel a solid ground beneath their feet. Maybe they could even rotate the people living in the mainland so that everyone would get the chance... Still, it would be hard, with the mainland being so far that even Portkeys didn't have good enough range. If only it was a little closer...

"Have you visited the mainland?" he asked thoughtfully as a thought came to him.

"Only once with Sprout to test the soil," Neville answered. "It was a while ago, though. Why?"

"I've visited it only once, but as far as I can remember, the place is pretty lively even around the shore, isn't it?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. We took one of the soil samples near the ocean shore, next to a fresh water river. Good dirt, that, but we decided to not take it because there wasn't much of it in that place and we found a better place to mine... " Neville trailed away, giving Harry a strange look. "What are you thinking? You get that expression when ever you, Hermione and Ron are heading headlong into trouble."

"Well, not into trouble exactly, but I just got a crazy idea," Harry started. "I was thinking about how difficult it would be to keep things running smoothly if some people lived in the mainland. As the place is so far away, people couldn't even Apparate from there to here, so we'd need to keep contact through the ships - and there's only so many people who can pilot them."

"Yeah, that's a problem," Neville agreed. "That's why Sprout is trying come up with another solution to the farming issue."

"Yeah, exactly. The mainland's too far away," Harry muttered and started smiling. "Or, if you turn it another way around, Atlantis is too far away from the mainland." His smile turned into grin as the realisation started dawning to the other.

"And Atlantis, being a ship..." Neville started slowly.

"... is mobile," Harry grinned.

"We can move it closer to the mainland!" Neville said, eyes wide with excitement.

"Probably so close to suitable spot off shore where we can build a bridge between the mainland and the city too," Harry grinned and turned to his open barrels. Quickly he took out his wand and levitated one of them over the pier. "I'll just spread these two, ok? Need to find Hermione. Or Elizabeth. One of them has to know whether we can move the city."

"Yeah, sure," Neville nodded and frowned. "Though, since this is a space ship, would it mean we need to take off completely? Because that would ruin just about all the work we've gotten done on the piers."

"I don't know," Harry frowned. "I was thinking more along the lines of floating the city across the ocean. Kind of like a boat of a raft. Hmm... Maybe we can tow it with the smaller ships."

"The whole city? Wouldn't that be a bit too heavy for the small ships?

"Well, the city's floating on the surface of the bloody ocean, so it has to be, I don't know...it's being held on the surface somehow anyway. Which means it can't be that heavy," Harry frowned, cursing the fact that he didn't really know much about that aspect of the place. He was more people oriented these days and had left worrying about the city itself to people who were more likely to understand the sort of stuff. "There has to be some sort of way. Atlantis is a ship, it has to be able to move or it's not a very good ship," he said finally.

"Well, I'll leave worrying about that to you. But blimey, it would be useful," Neville murmured. "Not that there's anything wrong with the place, not at all, I love this place, but I really miss real ground and, you know, taking walks in woods... that sort of stuff. And just walking on normal grass!"

"Lot of people do, I bet," Harry muttered. If they could take the city closer to the land, it would solve lot of problems, not just the food problem. The artisans of the Meditation Hall would get access to materials. The centaurs could go to actual woods of they wanted to - though he still kind of hoped they wouldn't just take off. He had gotten adjusted to the idea of having them around. The mainland would probably help lot of people with the issues they were having. They were doing all they could to make the transition from magical culture to partially technological as smooth as possible, but lot of people still were leery about just about everything in Atlantis. If they could go out and enjoy nature when ever they could - real nature, and not just the parks they were making... they would probably feel a little better.

He had tried not to think it too much, but now that he had this idea, he had to admit that he had missed the ground a little bit too. Atlantis was amazing. But it was still a floating metallic city on ocean surface. It got a little creepy at times.

"It would be easier to explore the mainland too," he muttered thoughtfully while using his wand to spread the soil across the lower pier. And who knew what other benefits there would be. All was left was to find out whether or not it was possible. Though, considering how useful it would be, they'd probably find a way and if they wouldn't find it, they'd make a way.

x

Eeh, long time no see. Sorry for the wait. I couldn't think of a proper ending of the whole werewolf thing because I ended up building up it into this huge thing and then nothing really was going to happen, so it was a bit anti climatic. And excuse me while I rape some Latin, k? And excuse my bad excuse of planteryknowledgethingmajicks.

(And as you can see, majority vote was No on Teddy the werewolf. Some wanted Teddy as a werewolf who could control his transformations but that seemed a little too convenient for me, so I just went with cannon.)

My apologies for possible grammar errors. My excuse is being Finnish and beta-intolerant. If you spot some which annoy you, tell me and I shall fix them


	7. VII, Moving on

**VII chapter**

The idea of moving Atlantis closer to the mainland was an exciting one, and all of the Council agreed that it would probably be better on the long run. Actually doing it, though, was hard.

"We don't have the power, simply enough," master Magee explained to the Council with Elizabeth and Hermione nodding in agreement. "The Spellstones can power this place for day to day use; they will keep lights on, water system working, things of that sort. But the engines, well we might not know everything about them but we know that they take a whole lot more energy. Just turning them on will take all the power all our spell casters can supply in a day. If we wanted to move Atlantis, it would take better part of half a year of near continuous spell casting to get enough power stored - and that is without including the power we need in Atlantis every day."

"So, there's no way?" Kingsley asked disappointedly.

"Not _no way_. No way _now_," Hermione said, shaking her head. "There are ways. Either we put a Spellstone aside from the normal ones and keep on powering it until it has enough energy stored away, or..."

"Or we find an actual power source the Ancients used," Elizabeth said, leaning closer. "ZPMs. We don't have any of them here in the city, but out there... Some of you might know, but when I was in stasis, I had a note of five gate addresses. They were given to me by the Ancient who took care of me, Janus. He said that on each of those locations, there is a ZPM. Now, if we would only --"

"Go through the gate?" McGonagall asked with a slight frown.

"Yes," Elizabeth answered and looked around in the Council table. "We can't just keep on living solely on Atlantis for the rest of our lives! There's a whole galaxy out there. Galaxy which might have solutions for many of our problems. Power is only one thing. What if the food production doesn't come out as good as supposed - no offence meant, Professor Sprout - and we're left without much to eat? It would help to have people to trade with."

"Yes, or we could run into trouble the first thing and lose more people," McGonagall answered. "We come from a war, Doctor --" "Yes, I know and I understand that you're wary, but complete lockdown isn't the answer. Especially when we need something, like power of food or whatever we next might have shortage off. People need to stretch their legs too, we can't spend all our lives indoors and -"

"Ladies," Kingsley interrupted. "Please. It is true we don't want to take unnecessary risks," he amended, glancing at McGonagall. "And it is also true that we need certain things Atlantis cannot easily provide, or which we ourselves cannot make. So far we have been content not using or even much thinking about the gate, and that has worked fine for us. But it is also true that we are strangers in this galaxy. And from what I've heard from Doctor Weir, it wouldn't hurt to know a little about the state of affairs out there, if nothing else.

"However," the Ruling Councillor raised his hand before either of the two women could say anything. "However we're not about to head out of the gate right now. First we need to decide whether or not it is truly necessary." He looked between McGonagall and Elizabeth, who both stayed obediently quiet. "Thank you. Now, Pomona. Do you think it would ease our lives if we would change Atlantis's location closer to the mainland?"

"It would. It would make soil transfer easier, we could start crops on real ground..." the woman shrugged her shoulder. "I think that anything we grow in Atlantis will probably turn out better than what we could grow on actual land - Atlantis's watering system is pitch perfect and the hydroponics gardens are coming out excellent. However, we will need more space than we have eventually, especially if our numbers grow and judging by the looks of some of the women around, they are."

Harry smothered a faint grin. "We're at the start of a baby boom," he explained to those who hadn't yet heard about it from Pomfrey. When they had came to Atlantis, they had had two pregnant women, one of whom was going to have her baby any day now. Now they had three more and it was probably only the beginning. "It's only matter of time before we are knee deep in tiny little Lanteans."

"That'll be a pleasant sight," Elizabeth mused with a smile.

"Troublesome too. Especially since in the upcoming years there's doubtlessly going to be more pregnancies... with majority of our numbers being under age witches and wizards," Sprout frowned. "We can manage now. But give it a decade or two and we will be in a trouble."

"So, we're not exactly in dire need of moving Atlantis's location?" McGonagall asked.

"Maybe not in dire, but it's always better to do things a little early. And it would be better if we had some extra recourses rather than we'd have only exactly as much as we need," Sprout argued. "Crops can fail and accidents can happen. We need to prepare for that."

"Also, it would be better for traders and other people if they could visit land when ever they wanted to rather than when ever it was possible, because with so few proper pilots, it's not possible as often as we'd like," Annie Hall added. "It would be much easier for traders if we had easy access to land. For many others too, I imagine."

"The centaurs certainly wouldn't mind the chance to see some real land," Entau murmured, her hoof clicking against the floor thoughtfully.

"It would be easier for others. Soothing, if nothing else," Harry added and picked up Evvie who had fallen to his shoulder. "And exploring the land, hunting, gathering plants... it would give people things to do. And some comfort too." Who knew how many people were secretly afraid that Atlantis would sink or something. It was after all metal city floating on ocean without single spot of land near by. It sinking was probably a reasonable concern.

"So, to sum this whole thing up... it isn't necessary for our continued survival to reach the mainland, but it would ease things for us. And to reach the mainland we need a power source which we would have to procure off world," Kingsley said. "Is the power source our only concern?" he asked, turning to Magee, Elizabeth and Hermione. "The only thing we need is that?"

"Well, no. The engines need to be repaired a little and of course we need someone to actually pilot the city," Magee said. "And select exactly where to take the city, where it could be safe so near land. The city was designed to preferably sit on top of water as it is now, but too close to shore it will be a little problematic. Of course the ship could be lifted up to the ground as well, but..."

"But that would demand even more power than just floating it across the ocean surface," Elizabeth said, nodding. "It's also easier on the city to be on water. The stardrive and such are on the bottom of the city, and unless there is remarkably smooth spot for the city to sit on, landing on land could damage them."

"Alright... so, we need a power source, to repair whatever needs repairing and place to park in," Kingsley murmured. "Difficult shopping list for a little move."

"If you call moving across the planet little," Annie Hall murmured, and folded her hands. "I propose a vote."

"Seconded," Elizabeth said.

"Alright. Preliminary vote concerning the matter of changing Atlantis's location. All in favour?" Kingsley asked. Entau, Annie Hall, Elizabeth and Sprout lifted their hands first. Kingsley did so too after some thought and while McGonagall glared at them, Harry sighed and lifted his hand too. No use waiting for all the votes before giving his when the matter had a majority.

"I'm sorry, Minerva. You were out voted," Kingsley said.

"It's not the first time," the Academy Headmistress sighed. "I'll live. I still don't like the idea of going through the gate, but I do not deny that it would be useful if we moved Atlantis. I merely think that we should consider other options than going through the gate. But very well, let's go through this madness. Don't tell me I didn't tell you so if someone gets hurt."

"I'm sure we will remember," Kingsley said with a faint smile. "Alright, then. Doctor Weir, Hermione, master Magee... your group can work with the way of moving the city, right?"

"I think we can get all the right parts into working order," Magee said thoughtfully. "Atlantis hasn't so far been adverse against few repairing charms and we don't need to get the stardrive to mint condition, thank Merlin. All we need is to get the simpler sub-light engines going. They need to be tweaked a bit as they were designed for landing and keeping orbit and such, but I think we ought to be able to make them help Atlantis sail the ocean."

"Alright, good. Sprout, you and your team select the spot in mainland. First priority will be farming, so we will go with your expertise. It won't hurt if Atlantis is mile or so off the shore if necessary as then we should be able to Apparate, but it would be simpler for our muggle residents if a bridge could be build."

"Got it," Sprout nodded.

"I will put out a word that we need volunteers for off-world assignments," Kingsley said. "We ought to have few volunteers before long and once we have good team selected, they can check out the worlds you mentioned, Doctor Weir. Does anyone have anything else to bring up before we will end this meeting?"

"I'd like to volunteer," Elizabeth said, gaining worried looks from the Council. "I have the expertise on off-world travelling, I know languages that might help, and I know what to look for," she simply said.

"Alright. I will keep that in mind," Kingsley said. "Anyone have anything else to say? Then this meeting is adjourned." He stood up. "I'm going to get something to eat. Anyone joining me?"

"I think I will. I missed breakfast," Harry said standing up with Evvie safely held in his hand, while Elizabeth nodded as well. While the other Council members along with Hermione and Magee made their leave, Harry and Elizabeth followed Kingsley to the nearest transporters.

"I was hoping I would talk you a little more about the way this sort of exploration was arranged on Earth, by the Stargate Command," Elizabeth said to Kingsley. "Your abilities with magic give you an edge to what we did on Milkyway, but you still might take some things into consideration, some methods which we found to be useful."

"Like?" Kingsley asked curiously as they got into the transporters.

"Well, for one all teams going through the gate on earth had to know first aid, in case of emergencies," Elizabeth started, pausing for a moment as the transporter took them closer to the Dining Hall, and continuing. "Also, each team had a pre-set chain of command. There was the leader, the second in command - military officers usually - and two others, usually ones with certain expertise needed like language skills, geology skills - few were archaeologists and zoologists... and such. Each team on earth was arranged to serve a certain goal. For example there were exploration teams, there were research teams, there was one of two back up teams consisting solely of military members, their duty usually was to serve as backup or rescue teams who had gotten into trouble..."

"We don't have enough people for something like that - and were rescue operations necessary often?" Kingsley asked with a worried frown.

"More often than I'd like to think," Elizabeth said. "Still, even though you might have no more than one or two teams, you might want to make sure that they have at least some first aid knowledge just in case, and that they have a diversity of skills. Also, proper chain of command never hurts - if they get into trouble, they need to be one unit under one command, and not group of headless people doing whatever they want to."

"That I understand," Kingsley murmured. "Auror squads had sometimes similar groups so I should work something out. And it certainly wouldn't hurt to have people know some healing. Harry," he glanced at the Advising Councillor who had been following them thoughtfully. "You're taking lessons with Madam Pomfrey, right?"

"Concerning mind healing, yes," Harry answered. "She's shown me some simple first aid skills too, but mostly we've been concentrating onto calming charms and such."

"Do you think she could squeeze in a few for some first aid training? Nothing major, just bandaging charms and such which could come in handy during emergencies?" Kingsley asked.

"I'll ask her. I don't think she'll be against it, now that things have slowed down," Harry answered.

"Good. Any other advices you might have, Doctor?" the Ruling Councillor turned to look at the elderly muggle woman.

"You might consider your usual gate security," she answered. "On Earth we have these code devices which sent a certain sequence of numbers through the gate back to the base, so that we know who is coming through the gate. We usually have the iris - our version of the shield - closed otherwise, as we have many enemies."

"Well, we have none and so far the gate has been dead silent ever since we came here... but," Kingsley hummed. "I think we can do something similar. We need to test how the Patronus handles the gate first, though."

"If you have the gate's shield on, it wouldn't make it," Elizabeth said with a frown. "That shield is designed to fit like a glove to the gate, so if anything hits it, they'll be destroyed instantly."

"Then we won't use the shield," Kingsley answered.

"If you don't use it, you risk letting anyone and everyone in," she retorted with a frown.

"Hm. There is that. You got any suggestions, Harry?" Kingsley asked.

"You could make another shield that will envelope the immediate gate area," Harry said thoughtfully. "Strong enough to hold back a person from wandering off but spacious enough to let them through. That way the Partronus would get in without destroyed and you wouldn't risk letting enemies in. If the spell works through the gate, that is."

"The shield can protect from more than just people. You can send almost anything through the gate - weapons, ships, explosions..." Elizabeth said. "A wider shield might not protect from those.

"Well, for those we can have the original gate shield," Harry said. "They can be like low threat shield and high threat shield."

"That's not a bad idea. Though how to make a shield like that..." Kingsley frowned.

"My team might be able to work something out," Elizabeth said. "Before this project we were looking into the main shield which would protect Atlantis as a whole if we'd be attacked. We were wondering if the same effect could be done magically. I'm sure that research will help us develop this low threat shield."

"Good. Let me know how it goes," Kingsley nodded. "In the mean while, you talk with Madam Pomfrey about medic training, Harry. It's probably best we get started on that before we start with this exploration thing."

"Will do," Harry nodded, frowning. Medic training would help if someone got hurt while off world, but it wouldn't help them get back home. With Apparation and Side-along Apparation they could get close to the gate if needed, but if the gate was for example surrounded by hostile people... it wouldn't be enough. "I wonder if it's possible to use Portkey through the Stargate."

"Portkey? One of those devices you can use to teleport?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yeah. I was thinking about way to evacuate off world," Harry answered. "It would be useful if they could use Portkey to get through the Stargate and straight to the gate room... though of course for that to work, the Stargate would need to be active... and to right address too," he murmured. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

"I'll look into evacuation methods, rest assured. I won't send anyone through the gate until I know they're prepared for it," Kingsley answered. "McGonagall isn't the only one worrying about our people." He gave Harry a look, and then noticed Evvie, who was determinately climbing up Harry's sleeve. "Oh yeah. I was supposed to mock you about that."

"Oh please," Harry said while plucking the fairy toddler from his sleeve. He held Evvie out for Kingsley to see. "Like you could mock something so cute. Just look at him. Look at his big blue eyes and mock him, I dare you." As if on cue, Evvie turned the said blue eyes to the Ruling Councillor and did that thing he now did every time when Harry, usually during nights, tried to make the fairy leave his hair and go play somewhere elsewhere. He opened his eyes as wide as he could and got a look of utter betrayal on his face. As added effect, his lower lip quivered.

"Aww," Elizabeth cooed to the fairy, reaching out to ruffle the tiny creature's messy hair with her finger tip. "Isn't that just the cutest thing you've ever seen?"

"Now, see, that's not fair," Kingsley grumbled, leaning away a little as if to get away from the Evvie look of doom.

"All is fair in love and war and mocking," Harry cackled.

x

"I don't really have much do with the plan, for now at least," Harry explained to curious Ginny later on, after having eaten and talked with Madam Pomfrey about possible medic training. Ginny had, after hearing about the fact that they'd begin exploring the galaxy, started thinking of volunteering, and had asked him about what he knew about the whole project. "There's not much I can do for it after all. With master Magee's group working on the city, Sprout's people working on the mainland and Kingsley leading the whole going-off-world thing, they got pretty much everything covered. All I am doing is giving few advises and asking questions here and there."

"But you still know more than most of the city, being in the Council and all?" she asked. "Do you think they'd be willing to let me in? I've been running out of things to do around here, and so have most of the DA. There's only so much farming you can do before it starts getting on your nerves, and though we're patrolling the city, there's nothing to patrol, really. Sure, some of us are busy with mainland trips and of course someone has to be in the gateroom around the clock, but the rest..."

"Yeah. But I'm not sure whether they'd take in younger people for the off-world trips," Harry frowned. If they would accept someone like Ginny, they'd get earful from her mother no doubt. Even if she would be off the age in a few months, she was still no doubt too young in the Council's eye. "I think Kingsley's hoping for older, more experienced folk they can send," he said.

"I've got experience," Ginny said with a frown.

"You also got a mother who'd wring our necks," Harry said calmly and shook his head. "You need to think it from the city's perspective too. We need the younger generation more than we need the older one. Not just because we younger ones are more energetic and can work better and learn new things easier, and so forth. But we have more years left and can have more kids on the long run. And if we want our civilisation to continue beyond our generation, we need kids."

She shuddered. "I think I will give it a few years before I start thinking about that, thank you."

"But it's still a fact. You in the long run can contribute more than, say, your dad can. It's cruel way to put it, but we really need to be aware of how things are. There aren't enough of us to maintain society for long, not without drastic measure," Harry shrugged. That was maybe one benefit they might get from the space exploration, pointed out to him by Pomfrey during one of their healing study sessions. Elizabeth had told him that the Ancient had seeded human race to the Pegasus galaxy, bringing people all the way there from earth. If they were lucky, some of those people would remain, and...

But that was maybe the worry of another day. Or another year.

"Nevertheless. The younger generation is too valuable to risk just yet," Harry said. "You can ask about it from Kingsley, and I'm sure he'd find something for you to do. But I wouldn't put my hopes up for the off world exploration."

She sighed. "Figures. One more interesting thing I can't do because I'm too young and precious," she murmured, folding her arms. "Well, I suppose there is still the mainland, though that can't be as interesting as exploring an alien planet would be."

"This is an alien planet," Harry chuckled. "So, what have you been doing, aside from working with DA and patrolling and farming?"

"Trying to convince mum and dad that the apartment next to theirs isn't million mile a way and that yes, I know how to cook in need, and that no, I don't really need to because of the Dining Hall," she answered. "In other words, I've been trying to move out and they won't let me. I've piloted a few trips to the mainland too, but mum tends to try and find me half dozen chores to do every time I even start thinking of going."

"That must be interesting," he murmured amusedly.

"It's a pain in the ass. It's all _Ginny, you're still under age_ and _Ginny, you're still in school,_" she sighed, rolling her eyes. "I'm turning seventeen this... uh, can't call it fall anymore, can I? Anyway, I'm turning seventeen in few months. She should give me a bloody break. But, I suppose... after what happened with Fred..." she trailed away, shrugging her shoulders.

Harry frowned, nodding in understanding. "How's rest of your family doing?" he asked. "I know Bill and Fleur are thinking of teaching in the Academy, but..."

"Well, George is busy with his joke shop with Lee, obviously. It's not exactly up and running, of course, but they're trying to come up with less material-consuming ways of making their products," Ginny answered. "Percy is still being all, you know... all withdrawn, I think he's still feeling guilty about the whole fight."

Harry blinked with surprise. He hadn't heard a word about Percy in a long while - he had almost forgotten he was in the city too. "That's... pretty quiet," he muttered, scratching the back of his hair only to find out that the itchiness was Evvie who was sitting on his collar, playing with his neck hairs. He pulled the fairy out and glared at him. "Can't you find something else to play with?"

Evvie gave a defiant little whirr and jumped up to air, settling himself back to Harry's head with finality.

"One day I swear I'm getting a hat," Harry muttered. "No, a beanie, and then what will you play with? Or better yet, I'll pull it on while you're playing with my hair. I'd like to see you have fun then!" he could hear the fairy blowing a raspberry in answer.

"Um, Harry?" Ginny asked.

"Never mind, just... never mind," Harry sighed. "And about Percy, you should tell him to talk with Kingsley. I have a feeling our Ruling Councillor could use an assistant," he added.

"No, seriously, there is a fairy in your hair," Ginny said, looking amused.

"Yes, I know, _never mind_." Harry growled. "How is the rest of your family doing? How's, uh... Charlie? I haven't seen him around."

"Why is there a fairy in your hair?"

"_Ginny_."

She grinned. "Charlie's exploring the mainland," the witch said. "I think he's trying to find something big and ferocious to tame." She trailed away and grinned. "Seriously. That thing is cute."

Harry sighed. "One of the centaur foals gave him to me. If you want one of your own, go ask her."

"Heh. Maybe I will," she murmured, still grinning. "Does he have a name?"

Harry sighed. "Evvie. And seriously, he's a fairy, not the marvel of all things magical," he said flatly before rolling his eyes, picking the fairy from his head and depositing him to Ginny's hands. "Here. Marvel away. Now. What have your parents been doing?"

"Dad's working with the Order and some of the muggles in figuring out the systems, they're sort of side team under Doctor Weir," Ginny said while examining the fairy with a wide smile. "Apparently Atlantis is so riddled with different sort of technological gimmicks that it will take years before they figure them all out. Mostly they're marking all the places where people shouldn't go. Laboratories and such."

"Hm. Good thinking." Harry nodded. Who knew what there were in those places, left behind by the Ancients. "I should have some city-studying too." He knew his way around the city, now, but he hadn't spent that much time with the systems or the computers. "Where I find the time for that is a problem though."

"Busy?" Ginny asked while using her forefinger nail to brush Evvie's messy hair into order, much to the fairy's delight.

"Let's see. There's the council, not that there's much for me to do with that. There's lessons with Elizabeth, when ever she's got the time. There's the lessons with Pomfrey, which I take about every other day or so. Then there's studying I'm doing on my own, which reminds me I need to ask Slughorn if he's willing to teach me Legilimency and Occlumency. Then there's the whole counsellor business which, thankfully, hasn't been too busy job to do, but..."

"I see you have your plate full," Ginny said. "Perhaps you should get an assistant too."

"I need another me," Harry answered. "But I got Kreacher. He's been a great help."

"Must be interesting help to have," the witch murmured. "The elves have changed so much that sometimes I forget what they used to be like. They're... tall now. Well, taller." She frowned and looked at Harry. "I saw one the other day that almost reached my chest. They barely reached my _waist_ when I was only _twelve_."

"Yeah. Atlantis is doing them good," Harry nodded.

Ginny nodded and lifted Evvie back to Harry's hair with a smile. "It's kind of creepy, though."

"Kind of."

x

Ginny probably wasn't the only one asking to join the exploration teams but thankfully Harry wasn't in charge of that and if they bothered someone about it, it was most likely Kingsley. It gave him the time to sort out through his studies, and finally schedule time with Slughorn about Occlumency and Legilimency sessions. The potions master had been a little doubtful about his conviction at first, but after few tutoring sessions with Pomfrey, the man had realised Harry seriously wanted to do this.

"Still, you must keep in mind exactly why you are doing this and what your limitations are," the man warned him. "Occlumency is good for everyone but Legilimency is a borderline dark ability. The feeling of power it gives to go through a persons mind can go to your head on the long run. Back on earth extreme cases of Legilimency use were even illegal."

"But Legilimency itself wasn't?" Harry asked.

"It's a power play of powerful wizards, Legilimency, and most those powerful wizards made the laws," Slughorn answered. "Legilimency has always been too handy a talent to ban. Many great ministry workers used the talent to gain reputation. For example Barty Crouch the senior was known for impressive repertoire of languages, over two hundred. How he learned them? Well, he had the affinity of bilingualism, but mostly by using Legilimency on Muggles who knew those languages as their native tongue."

"That's disgusting," Harry muttered.

"I know," the potions maker nodded with a frown. "So, just as a favour for me if for no other reason, remember that you're learning this to help people. Not to spy them or steal their talents."

On the side, however, Harry's reputation as the counsellor was, more or less, spreading. Well, he wasn't yet known as the counsellor. As far as he knew, people considered him to be something of a good and fair listener and willing to help those who asked it - which to his mind wasn't unfortunate at all. But that was good enough, especially when people started feeling that they could come to him without any fuss or making appointments or having the friends of their friends introduce them.

Most of the things people came to see him were not because of mental issues, though. Mostly it was people who wanted something to do, or something to different to do - they wanted to pitch in somewhere but didn't know who to approach. Some were thinking of starting to learn a new talent which would help around and wanted to make sure that it was okay. And so forth. Harry certainly didn't mind helping and when ever he could he pointed them to the right people who would find them something they could do. Other times he even advised people to see what they would like to do when ever they asked him what they should do.

It was only a matter of time, however, when someone made the move to add another aspect to his duties.

"Master Corun Án?" Kreacher tentatively called from the door, rousing Harry from reading an Occlumency book supplied by Slughorn. "One Mrs. Scrivener is here, with Miss Scrivener. They wish to talk with you."

"Oh. Of course. Bring them in, and if you wouldn't mind it, get us a pot of tea and some cups," Harry said, putting the book away and standing up. He frowned a little after Kreacher, wondering if it was safe yet to suggest the elf to get actual clothes. He had suggested it a while ago, but Kreacher had given him a look and served him a cup of very bitter tea in answer.

Mrs. Scrivener was a blond woman, pregnant to the point of bursting. The girl accompanying her was about Ginny's age and equally blond, though from her slim frame it was easy to see what her mother would've looked if she wasn't pregnant. The girl, though by the looks of the scar in her cheek she too had experienced war, seemed a little cautious as she stepped into Harry's office-living-room

"You must be Helen and Emma - or do you prefer Mrs. and Miss Scrivener?" Harry asked, as it was the first time he met them personally.

"You may call us by our first names, of course," the muggle woman answered, taking Harry's hand as he offered it to be shaken. Though under her pregnancy she seemed slim, she had very strong grip. "I've heard many things about you, Master Corun Án. It's an honour to meet you face to face."

"Please. Harry or Potter, which ever you prefer, is fine," Harry said and motioned them towards the couches which stood near his writing desk. "Go ahead and sit down. Kreacher should be right back with some --" he stopped at the sound of pop and glanced at the tea table where Kreacher was quickly setting a tray down. "... refreshments. Thank you, Kreacher."

"You are welcome, master Corun Án," the elf assured. "Is there something else you might need?"

"Not right now, thank you. You can go," Harry nodded. The elf disappeared after a rather graceful bow and while the two Scriveners sat down, Harry poured the three of them tea. "So, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"Well..." Mrs. Scrivener hesitated for a moment, glancing at her shy daughter before raising her chin. "As you can see, Mr. Potter, I'm about to have my son any day now," she said, to which Harry offered sincere congratulations. "Thank you," she nodded. "The reason why I came here is... well. Back on... on Earth I was a Christian, and my son was going to have a proper christening with baptism like my Emma here got. I can't say that I was exactly decoded believer but I think it's important for there to be proper ceremonies when a child is named."

"Of course," Harry nodded. "It's important event. It should be properly done and celebrated."

"Right," she nodded. "The thing is, aside from me there is only handful of other Christians here, and none of us brought a bible or anything of the sort here. I don't really care, I won't get any sleepless nights over it, but..." the woman trailed away, touching her stomach. "I want my child to be named properly with a ceremony."

Harry nodded again, slower this time as the realisation why she was there to see him about the matter dawned.

"Potter, is there any wizard ceremonies for stuff like that?" Emma Scrivener finally spoke up. "You're kind of like, uh, a priest here now days, right? I head Ginny Weasley speaking about it the other day, so... you'd know, right? You could, I don't know... christen him?"

"I don't mind if it's a wizard ceremony, even if my son might be born a muggle or squib or however they're called," the muggle woman frowned. "I just want my son to have his day. As he should."

Harry eyed the two of them seriously for a moment before taking a sip of his tea. "Well, to be honest, I don't really know," he admitted. "But I can find out, there are plenty of wizards here who no doubt know. However are you sure you want me to do it? There must be more experienced wizards or witches --"

"Yes, but you're Harry Potter," the woman answered. "Even I know who you are, so who better to name my son?"

Harry hesitated before sighing. "How about I look if I can find something about ceremonies like that and in the mean while you look through other options about who performs the ceremony itself?" he asked. "Kingsley Shacklebolt for one would be perfectly respectable choice as he is our leader."

"Yes, but he is a military man at heart," Helen scrivener said with a mild frown. "I want my child named by someone… peaceful. And as far as I know, majority of the council aside from Annie Hall and Elizabeth Weir took a part in the war one way or another - and neither Annie Hall nor Elizabeth Weir seem like people to ask this sort of thing from."

"I took a part in the war as well, Mrs. Scrivener," Harry answered. "And in any case, I believe Elizabeth Weir is much more spiritual than I am." He was quiet for a moment, waiting for an answer but the muggle woman merely eyed him steadily. "Alright, then, I will see what I can do," he finally sighed. "When are you due?"

"Within a week," she answered, standing up now that her business had been concluded. "And if it would be possible, I would like him named within month after birth. Preferably after a week or so."

"Alright," Harry nodded. "I will contact you once I know more about the proper ceremonies. It is possible we might have to improvise as we lack certain things that we could've found on Earth, but… well handle than when the time comes, I suppose."

"Yes. That sounds good," the woman nodded. "I'll be waiting to hear from you and thank you for your time."

She nodded at Harry and her daughter almost bowed before they made their way out. Once they were safely out of sight, Harry ran his hand over his face and swore to butcher Kingsley as soon as he saw the man. "Kreacher, could you kindly visit the library for me and ask Madam Pince if she has any books about naming ceremonies?" he asked as the elf appeared to clear the tray.

"Of course, Master Corun Án," the elf nodded and glanced at him as he stood up. "Are you leaving, master?"

"I'm going to visit the Weasleys, see if I can catch Mrs. Weasley," Harry answered with a sigh. Having birthed seven children, she probably knew just about everything about stuff like that. He glanced at the elf and grimaced. "Seriously, Kreacher. You need to get some proper clothing some time soon. It's starting to get painful seeing you wearing that rag."

The elf immediately bristled. "I will not --"

"I know you don't _want_ clothes, but that thing doesn't exactly become you - or any other elf of Atlantis, now that you look like this and act like this," Harry answered, frowning. "Can't you, I don't know… consent to wearing uniform or something?"

"Uniform?" the elf asked, frowning. "Like Hogwarts uniform?"

"Or military uniform or whatever," Harry answered. "Something that would a little better than what you wear now, but what you wouldn't really own yourself? It could, I don't know…mark you as elves of Atlantis?"

The elf frowned. "I don't like the idea," he answered. "But perhaps it's because of generation of mental oppression and bad habits. I will bring it up with the other elves, to see what they will think."

"Thank you," Harry nodded and as the elf disappeared with a pop, Harry straightened his robe collar and then glanced around to see where Evvie was. The fairy had left his hair to eat, finally, but he hadn't seen him since. "Evvie?" he called, looking around for the fairy's favourite spots. He eventually found the tiny creature on the top of a cabinet, playing with a small piece of silver chain. "Evvie, come on. We're going for a walk."

The little fairy let out a buzz before jumping to the air and flying to him - and almost straight to his face before Harry caught him. Evvie was still holding the chain in his hand, and showed it proudly to Harry. The wizard chuckled. "Very fine," he answered, taking the tiny chain. It wasn't good for much of anything for him, but for Evvie it was probably one of the greatest marvels he had seen. "Oh, I have an idea," he muttered, talking out his wand, and joined the two ends of the chain, making a loop. As the fairy stared at him with awe, Harry dropped the tiny chain around the creature's neck.

As the fairy started letting out excited buzzing noises and whirs and jumped up to air to start circling around Harry's head, the wizard chuckled. "Easy to please," he muttered, snatching the fairy from the air and disposition him to the top of his hair. "Though it's about time we got clothes for you too."

With the fairy whirring happily, Harry made his way to the door and started his search for Mrs. Weasley.

x

"I think it's a pity," Luna said dreamily in Harry's latest counselling session with her - which usually involved him whining about his latest problems and her eying him like he was a particularly interesting creature she had just encountered. It was relieving for Harry because she neither tried to tell him what to do nor did she care about his whining to one direction or another which gave him a chance to unload his latest stress without being judged for it - and she wouldn't use it against him later on which was also nice.

Through this time her particularly-interesting-creature-look was aimed more at Evvie than at Harry. It seemed the fairy had finally found a more interesting hair to play with and was happily toying with a lock of Luna's hair.

"That someone asked me to christen their kid?" Harry asked worriedly.

"No. That they're thinking of finding a power source for the city," she answered, turning to look from the fairy to Atlantis proper from where they were sitting, in edge of one of the piers. "She's only just begun to breathe, you know."

Harry blinked, glancing at the city. It looked magnificent in the light of the evening sun, which was probably why there were so many people out in the pier, staring at it. "Breathe?" he asked, confusedly. "Atlantis is a city, it's… it's a ship. It doesn't breathe."

"She does. You can hear it sometimes when you press your ear against her. She's breathing, her heart's almost beating," Luna said, and turned to lie down on the pier on her side while taking care to help Evvie stay steady on her shoulder. Then the blond witch was making herself comfortable on the metal, pressing her ear against it. "I don't know why people are expecting her not to. We're putting blood into her veins and feeding her very soul. Why she wouldn't learn how to breathe or why her heart wouldn't learn to beat…? It's what happens to all things when magic flows into their veins."

Harry started and turned to look at her. "Luna?" he asked slowly. "You think there's a side-effect of powering the city with magic?"

"Not a problem. Life is never a problem," the girl answered with a dreamy smile. "Listen, listen. She's sighing."

Confused, Harry set down his book about wizarding ceremonies and laid down on the pier, pressing his ear against the metal, wincing a little at the coolness. Then he tried to listen, but all he could hear was the hum of the machinery beneath, and the sound of the waves rocking against the pier's side. "I can't hear it," he said, a little relieved.

"You're not listening right. Come on. Close your eyes," the girl advised. "Listen. Not with your ear, but listen with your spine."

"If I'm supposed to listen with my spine, why am I holding my ear against the metal?" Harry asked amusedly, but closed his eyes.

"Shush now. Just breathe in and out and listen."

Harry did, but he still couldn't hear anything, only the hum of the machinery, distant rumble of some mechanism or and the sound of water flowing in the watering system, a steady, soft bubbling. Only, then the hum stopped, fading into silence, before another sound started. This was like starting of a system, like the sound of one of the Atlantis's consoles turning on, except slowed down into sound that lasted for minutes.

"That isn't breathing, Luna. That's just the normal sound Atlantis makes - I bet it some device working beneath the pier that we know nothing about," Harry answered.

"No," the girl answered, her eyed closed serenely and smile playing on her lips. "Atlantis is breathing. She is growing stronger too," the blond witch smiled, smoothing her hand over the metal surface of the pier. "Sometimes I can hear her hum. It's like she wants to sing."

Harry frowned and sat up, looking at the girl a little worriedly. "The way you speak… it's like she's alive."

"Do you know what happens technology comes in contact with magic?" Luna asked softly while lifting one lazy hand and nudging Evvie's side with her finger in retaliation to the way the fairy was tugging onto her hair.

"Um… well, in Hogwarts technology didn't work," Harry answered thoughtfully, still frowning. "My watch always stopped in Hogwarts, or showed the wrong time. And I think one muggleborn tried to bring in a laptop to the school and it died…" he trailed away, turning look at Luna. "So far Atlantis has reacted perfectly to magic, there hasn't been as much as a flicker from the lights no matter how much magic we've used - hell, sometimes it seems that the city is made for magic, considering the fact how perfectly all repair charms work on it."

"What happens to technology when magic is put inside it?" Luna asked, ignoring what he said.

"It… becomes magical…" Harry frowned, and then his eyes widened as he remembered one incident from the start of his first year. Arthur Weasley's charmed car with it's expanded compartments and flying and invincibility booster - in Hogwarts, it had turned wild. Like a creature. "You don't say…?"

"Atlantis is breathing," Luna smiled. "I hope that… if you give her other sort of energy, she won't stop. I would so like to hear her sing."

x

Mr. Weasley paced along the length of Harry's office as he chewed on the problem Harry had presented. "Well, normally I would immediately say no and have a good laugh," the man said, running his hand through his hair. "It take as a lot of magic to convert a muggle technology into something magical - there's something about the way most muggle things are made that repels magic at times," he explained. "It took me two years to just figure out how to put expansions charms on muggle devices like my car. I was a lot younger back then, of course, and experimenting a lot but…"

"For months we've been feeding Atlantis constantly with our spells, which the Spellstones spin into their purest form" Harry said with a mildly worried from. "And we already know that this place is made with material that is very magic friendly. How much magic would you say have we pumped into this place?"

"Well…" the man frowned. "How often do you use spells on Spellstones?"

"How often? Uh, once a day, sometimes twice. It's so much easier since they installed one to the Dining hall, I can just do it every time I go down there to eat something," Harry answered. "And if I have the time, I spend a while doing. Ten minutes to half an hour."

"Yeah. I try to make the time once a day at least too, lot of people to," Mr. Weasley frowned. "When I think it, that's a lot of magic. And the way I understand it, the Learning Councillor's group hooked the Spellstones directly into the city without much of a filter in between. Which I suppose means that the magic is flowing through the city is really in its purest form…"

"Yeah," Harry said. "But if wanted to know more about that, I would go and talk with Hermione as she knows all about it, but you know more about what magic can do to technology. Which is what I want to know about now. So…"

"Like I said, in any other circumstance I would tell you immediately that no, no way could a complex this big be affected. But we've been, what was that word you used, pumping? Fascinating. Anyway, we've been pumping lot of magic into Atlantis," the man frowned, sitting down to one of Harry's couches. "And wild magic can have worse side effects than, say, spells."

"How so?" Harry asked.

"Well, it's a bit difficult to explain, but… when you have a spell, the magic in that spell generally does what the spell commands to - and only that, right?" the man asked.

"Well, generally," Harry nodded. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Magic, in essence, is always the same. Light spell, dark spell, it doesn't matter. Magic inside those spells is no way in different no matter what spell you're using. That's what makes the Spellstone work, you know. It doesn't actually spin spells into pure magic; it breaks the spell in the magic. Or the magic in the spell. Either way, it doesn't take the spell but just the magic in it."

"Uh…" Harry frowned. "You lost me. How is that important?"

Mr. Weasley smiled. "Spells are what makes separate bits of magic seem different. Spells are why levitation charm can't turn books purple and banishment charm doesn't change them into chickens, even though the magic is essentially the same. With magic, the potential is always there - it can do incredible things, and spells are more of a way to stop it from doing more than we want to, than a way to make it do as we want to," the elder wizard explained. "It is in magic's nature to… do whatever. It affects anything and everything near, charming them, changing them."

"Okay," Harry said slowly. "And spells stop it from doing everything it wants to? You make it sound like magic has a mind."

"Well, not exactly a mind, but it is in magic changes things. That's simply how it is, it's a power that distorts the world. And the changes can be random if magic is left to its own devices - that's how we got majority of magical creatures in the first place, you know. Magic took them and distorted them into new form, or that's how one theory goes," Mr. Weasley shrugged his shoulder. "And that is what we have flowing in Atlantis's systems."

"And no one thought it could do something to the city?" Harry frowned.

"I suppose there was no reason to worry. Everything we give to the city, the city needs to work," the man shrugged. "I guess we all thought that there wouldn't be any reason to worry as the magic given to the city is used up almost instantly. Well, I don't really know what they thought, as I wasn't working under the Learning Councillor them. But that seems a safe bet."

Harry nodded in understanding. He wouldn't have even given it a blink if Luna hadn't said anything. "So, it is possible that the magic we've given to the city is changing it from the inside?" he asked slowly.

The man opened his mouth and then sighed, shrugging his shoulders. "It's a big place, enormous… too big to charm in normal conditions," he said. "And with muggle technology, it would matter of more than just size, as muggle technology repels magic at times. But… Atlantis is very magic-friendly, like you said, and the amount of magic we've pumped into it can't be really measured. So I honestly can't rule out the possibility."

Harry frowned, nodding. He needed to call another council meeting, it seemed and soon. "So, there is the possibility. What I want to know what it can do, the magic inside the city. How can it change the city? I need to know the best case and worst case scenario."

"Well," Mr. Weasley muttered, looking a little taken a back by his tone of voice. "It's hard to tell. It might be anything from Hogwarts level of enchantment - moving staircases, vanishing rooms, changing corridors - though with the city being so technological, who knows… And there are cases when technological muggle equipment changed, after getting in contact with magic, and… they gained sentience."

"Sentience," Harry muttered. That was oddly matter of fact way of putting that a car gained mind of its own, kicked out its passengers and ran for the woods. "What sort of sentience?"

The man shrugged helplessly.

"Right," Harry muttered and stood up. "I need to talk with Elizabeth and master Magee's group about this. I probably should call for Council meeting but I want to be sure at first. Care to join me?" It would've made second council meeting he had called within as many days, so he kind of wanted to be sure he wasn't calling it for nothing. "Being our expert on how muggle technology reacts to magic, you probably can contribute to this better than most could."

"Sure, if I can help," Mr. Weasley nodded, giving him a thoughtful look. "You've really gotten into this Council business then, Harry?" he asked a little amusedly while standing up as well.

"Well…" Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Mostly it's just been bringing forth new ideas or problems, when they arise. That's not so hard to do."

"And this… naming babies thing?" the man asked, smiling. "Molly said you had gone to her asking about it."

"Well, that wasn't my idea. I blame Kingsley, it's his fault this Corun Án thing started the first place, just because he was too lazy to bind the elves to the city himself," Harry muttered and snorted. "One day I'm going to make him pay dearly for it."

"Uhhuh. Still, the duties seem to become you," the ex-ministry worker said approvingly. "You've growing up to be quite the politician."

Harry sighed. "And here I was hoping I could somehow avoid that," he sighed, and looked at the elder wizard. "You know where the laboratory where Magee's group usually work is?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I suddenly don't want to use the teleporters knowing that, you know, magic might be interfering with them. So, I'm going to Disapparate," Harry answered.

"Ah, good idea. Bit paranoid, but there's nothing wrong with that," Mr. Weasley nodded. Harry smiled grimly, and turned on his spot, the disorienting feel of Apparition. The next he could see, he was standing outside the laboratory area taken over by the group Hermione was working with first to make the Spellstones and whatever else they had been working since.

"Hm, well this looks…" he trailed away as he entered the laboratory. It was now filled with tables and shelves, with few ancient consoles and screens added and what looked like odd chemistry set made of crystals. There were few people working in the room, most whom Harry didn't know, along with Magee and Hermione, who were both working at the ancient console. "Homely."

"Harry!" Hermione called, noticing him. "Oh, I didn't know you were coming. Listen, you think you could give us a hand with the secondary shield? The one meant to go around the Stargate. We've worked through some warding methods and such, but they're not nearly strong enough for what we have in mind. A shield like the one the gate already has is capable of stopping almost everything, blasts and explosions included, and there is no ward capable of that… so we've been hoping there might be a shield spell we can make a derivate from, but --"

"I'd be happy to help, but first I need to talk with you about something - you and you, master Magee," Harry said, interrupting her before she could go any further. He glanced at Mr. Weasley who looked around curiously to see what the team was working on, before turning to Hermione again. "Privately, if you have the time."

Hermione glanced at Magee and then nodded. "Sure, of course," she said.

"We can talk in my office, it's just down the corridor," Magee added, and led them away from the busy laboratory. His office was a sizeable room almost filled with bookshelves with whatever wall space there was left covered with hand-drawn star maps. From the ceiling, a illusion of the galaxy was floating, slowly spinning around its axis - magical copy of the hologram. "Please, sit," the man said while, with whisks of his wand, creating temporary armchairs.

"Thanks," Harry nodded and sat down with Hermione and Mr. Weasley while Magee sat behind his desk.

"So, what is this about?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"Well… it's a bit complicated to explain, but… here goes. Luna brought to my attention that there might be a slight possibility that Atlantis is… changing," Harry said. "Making me realise that we've been feeding this place a lot of magic without thinking about possible consequences. Now, I don't know much about this sort of stuff, but I do know that putting magic into technology tends to give it… attributes. If it doesn't kill it."

Hermione blinked, sharing a look with Magee as Mr. Weasley leaned closer. "I've been studying magic's effect on muggle devices all my life," the man said, frowning. "I know we haven't been intentionally turning Atlantis magical, but considering the amount of magic we've integrated into the city --"

"Ah, I see now what you're worried about," Magee said, leaning back in his chair. "I don't think there is a reason to be concerned. Atlantis doesn't work like muggle technology. See, most of muggle technology is based on certain elements, some which react negatively to magic, and others which are very susceptible to magic's affect. Atlantis however incorporates almost solely alloys which are extremely conductive. They neither repel magic or any other forms of energy, nor are they truly affected by them. Instead, they… conduct. Which is extremely good for us, I might add, as the Spellstone project would've never worked otherwise."

"Huh?" Harry asked.

"What he's saying essentially means that Atlantis moves energy without storing it. Every bit of magic is transported through Atlantis to where ever it is needed, and then it is used to power the systems," Hermione explained. "There's more involved than that, but… that's about it."

"And not even a tiny little bit of it lingers somewhere?" Harry asked.

"I doubt it," she answered and narrowed her eyes. "Luna brought this to your attention."

"Yeah. She said that Atlantis was breathing."

The muggle born witch gave him a long look. "Harry, Luna believes in _Crumple-Horned Snorkacks_," she said flatly.

"So?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrows and as she rolled her eyes, he turned to look at Magee. "Is there absolutely no chance that the magic has some effect on Atlantis? Because frankly, I'm going to have nightmares tonight about the city growing sentience because we've been feeding her magic."

"That could actually be pretty wicked," Magee noted.

"Master," Hermione snapped

"Just saying," the man shrugged. "But to answer your question; no, I don't think it's possible. Atlantis's way of handling energy is too efficient. However, I can check it just to make sure if that would help you sleep better at night."

"Thanks. I'd appreciate that," Harry answered. "The last time a thing I was in grew sentience, I got kicked out," he said, shuddering. "Not my most graceful moments."

"When was that?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Start of second year. Mr. Weasley's car decided it didn't like me and Ron that much after we rammed it into a Whomping Willow," Harry shrugged.

"My car grew sentience?" the said car's owner asked, sounding fascinated. "Why is this the first time I hear about it?"

"I thought Ron had told you," Harry said, hoping he had gotten his best friend into trouble. Coughing, he turned to Hermione and Magee. "So, I know where you've gotten with the shield, now. How about the matter of moving Atlantis?"

"Well, so far we've figured out that it won't be too easy, if nothing else," Magee answered. "If we got the necessary power, it wouldn't be merely the matter of turning the right engines on and waiting until we reach our destination. No, the city can only offer us some propulsion but next to no steering capabilities, so the only way to make sure we go to the right way would be, well, tow the city."

"With the smaller ships?" Harry asked.

"Most probably, yes," the magical inventor nodded. "Figuring how to do that, though, will most likely be a little problematic as they aren't exactly designed for it, but we've decided to work on this shield and the propulsion for now. The plan is after all futile unless we get a ZPM, so working out on the towing might be wasted effort if it turns out we can't find the power. But once we have other matters worked out, we will think about towing the city."

"You know the best, I suppose," Harry answered.

"Hopefully they will find the ZPM sooner than later. Without power it's hard to say how much of the propulsion system might've been damaged or what is the state of the engines. We can tell where they are, what they do, and how much power they need, but aside from that it's hard to tell more. We'd need to actually to get power to them to tell what's wrong with them," Hermione sighed, and then gave Harry an odd look. "Where's that fairy of yours?"

"Odd change of subject," Harry noted. "He's staying with Luna for the time being. Got attached to her hair, I think."

"Hm. Well, then you can help us with the shield project?" she asked. "Since he's not whirring about and likely to get to the way."

"Why not," Harry sighed and thusly committed himself to afternoon of work, most of which went completely over his head.

x

"Dozen volunteers so far, and that's without counting neither the Order nor the DA," Kingsley explained to Harry the following day when Harry stopped by to see how the whole off-world-exploration project was going. "Or Doctor Weir, obviously. Majority are witches and wizards with next to nothing to do, but we have also four muggles who volunteered as well. It's kind of… shocking."

"People are curious about the galaxy, I guess," Harry answered while gently ruffling Evvie's hair. The fairy had spend the whole previous day and night with Luna and for some reason now had sand in his hair which Harry was trying to help him get out - so that it wouldn't turn up in his own hair. "And lot are either running out of things to do, or getting tired with the few things they can do, mostly which either involves learning or farming."

"Yeah, I guess. And exploration probably seems like something exciting to do," Kingsley mused and handed a piece of parchment to Harry. "I've compiled a list of possible candidates and I already have the first team selected, but I was hoping you'd go through them first - as the counsellor. To make sure that they're actually up to the task and won't, I don't know… run off in mad fit of… madness, or something."

"Well, I'm not exactly a perfect counsellor yet, but if I can help…" Harry trailed away looking at the list. "I see you've denied access to anyone below twenty."

"Well, for now I only want the most experienced to be involved with this. Maybe once I know a little more we can lower the bar," the Ruling Councillor said. "And I have a feeling Mrs. Weasley and good professor McGonagall would scream my head off if I even considered it right now."

"Yeah, probably," Harry frowned and glanced at the first team Kingsley had chosen. Led by Charlie Weasley it consisted of Elizabeth, Alisa Wood and Jacob Finnigan. "Huh. I get Charlie and Elizabeth. Why Mrs. Wood and Mr. Finnigan?"

"They both have rudimentary first aid skills already. Also, Jacob Finnigan has some muggle military training and apparently has some sort of education with electronics which, considering that they're going out to find us something technological, might help," Kingsley explained. "Alisa Wood on other is something of a adventurer. She and her husband are kind of known for travelling and exploring and so forth. They have extensive self-training with this sort of thing. Very athletic and daring people, both of them. I would've included her husband but he sprained his ankle the other day when they were working with reorganising the whole Quidditch issue."

"How's that going anyway?" Harry asked. The Quidditch pitch of Atlantis had been working for a while some time ago before they had had an injury - during which one of the players had found the metal of the pier was very unforgiving place to land on. "They're setting some sort of net, aren't they?"

"Yeah. The pitch's gonna be between two piers apparently, if they can charm the net the way they want it to go. it will make the field bigger than it normally is, as they need to set the goals to the to piers, but I think they balanced it out by making the goals a little bigger, or something," Kingsley shrugged. "Anyway, could you at least talk with Mr. Finnigan and Mrs. Wood? I'm pretty sure Charlie's perfectly good to go, and Elizabeth's of course almost bouncing off the walls, but I don't know the others as well."

"I'll see what I can do," Harry promised. "I'm supposed to just make sure they're more or less suited for going?"

"Just make sure they are steady minded and won't flip out or anything," the Ruling Councillor nodded. "Once they have been cleared, and once Magee's group is done with the shield, they will be sent on their first… trip. Or should we call them missions?"

"Call them bloody insane for all I care," Harry muttered, though he couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. Atlantis was magnificent, but they had been there for months now. It would be… interesting to see other places. "Have you thought of, I don't know… joining the exploration one day?"

"Maybe one day, but right now I have my hands full," the elder wizard sighed while reached his hand for curious Evvie to examine. "There's the Academy, McGonagall's constantly bothering me about it, about resources and schedules and such and such. Then there's the farming and the trips to the mainland - I need to have everyone of course making reports, often verbally. Then there are dozens of other things that come to my attention, like Annie hall asking me whether or not they could magically expand the Meditation hall, or add more shops, and Elizabeth is bothering me constantly about this and that system and all the while that's happening I need to study the ancient language and how to work with the systems and so forth…"

"Hmh. I guess I'm not the only one with my hands full," Harry muttered.

"Yeah. And in the meanwhile I run constantly into people asking me about what's happening in the mainland and who's going and whether they can go with them - or what's happening with the farming, or with the indoor gardens or with the Quidditch field or in the infirmary or in the academy…" the ruling councillor frowned. "Makes me wish we'd have a newspaper so that people wouldn't keep asking me about news." He trailed a way with a frown. "Or radio program. Didn't Elizabeth say that there's a city wide communication system here?"

Harry blinked and then raised his eyebrows. "If she did, I wasn't there - though I suppose it would make sense," he said thoughtfully. People had come to him about those things too, he hadn't even considered it but of course they'd ask more from Kingsley who'd know more.

"Might be you weren't there - we were talking about safety protocols if I recall it right. Hmm… Yes, I think we could get some sort of news program up and running with that," the Ruling Councillor thought. "That way people would be informed about what's happening around here - and they would leave me alone about it."

"Hmm… I suppose it would be handy - and it would relief people to know what's going on," Harry nodded and then grinned. "Hey, you could put Lee to host the thing. He's good with that sort of thing, isn't he?"

"Hmm… Yeah, he was more or less the one who got the _Potterwatch_ working," the elder wizard nodded. "I think it should work perfectly. I need to talk with him about if of course, and with Elizabeth to see how the communication system works, but…"

"Well, have fun with it," Harry said, turning his attention to the list while absently lifting Evvie back to his head. "Do you want me to talk with all of these people?"

"Mr. Finnigan and Mrs. Wood are the priority, but if this off world travel becomes common, we might need more teams. So, if you could…"

"I will see what I can do," Harry nodded and then frowned. He would need to make appointments though, it seemed. With order members and the volunteers, it wasn't exactly single day work. "Do these people know that I need to check them, or do I need to ambush them unawares?"

"They know. On Elizabeth's suggestion I made this sort of mental examination a prerequisite. They know to expect you to call them," Kingsley nodded.

"Alright. Good," the younger wizard nodded. "Hopefully this won't be so hard then."

x

On his way to find either Mrs. Wood or Mr. Finnigan, Harry encountered three different people who demanded to know why they hadn't been let into the off world team - first was Dean, second was Neville and third was Ron. "They should've let me in," the redhead said. "I _deserve_ it, besides I got the experience, with what we've been doing most of our time in Hogwarts and afterwards. Hell, I know almost as much about defence against the dark arts as you, which should --"

"Ron, they're only letting people over the age of twenty into the team, besides the team has already been selected," Harry answered. "Kingsley wants people with experience - which I don't deny you have - to go, but more than that he wants to know what we're up against with the whole off-world exploration before he lets other… younger people travel through the gate."

"Only over the age of twenty? That's stupid. I'm off the age --"

"And so are lot of other people, I know," Harry sighed. "It's Kingsley's decision. Nothing I can do about it."

"You _could_ try to make him change his mind. You are the Advisor after all," Ron said a little sullenly.

"Maybe. But I won't because he is right about this. I'm sorry. You can try again after the first mission has played out and the Council knows more - and if nothing else, you will probably let into a team once you're twenty years old - if we're still doing this, then," Harry answered, and got a dirty look in answer. He frowned. When he had explained the situation to Dean and Neville they had understood and decided to try again. Ron acted like it was personal insult or something. "Why do you want to go anyway?" Harry asked.

"Well, what else can I do around here?" the redhead asked with a frown. "I'm not smart enough to work with the Ancient machinery or learn the language, farming is just… not my thing, really. And what else is there to do around here?"

Harry shrugged. "You could study," he answered. "We need people with certain skills. For example if the gate travel becomes habitual, we need medics, preferably in all the teams. Learning some healing skills would make you valuable around here. And if that's not what you want to do, learn a trade. We have everything we need now, but eventually we will need more stuff, stuff which we cannot get unless someone here makes it. And if that doesn't work with you, go and explore the mainland - they don't have age limit with that. You could try hunting for one. I for one would love to see some meat on my plate every now and then."

Silence followed his words and he sighed ands Ron continued to look a little sullen. "We're not going to run out of things to do, trust me," Harry said. "If that's just not the sort of stuff you don't want to do, then… figure something out."

"It's easy for you to say - or Hermione," Ron snapped. "You got into the Council without doing much anything, and Hermione, well she's always been so smart that she can do whatever she wants to. What the hell can I do around here, except for chores because I don't know anything else? At least the off world exploration would've given me something meaning full -"

"If you don't know how to do anything, then learn for Merlin's sake. We have library, we have a school, we have _classes_. Madam Pomfrey is teaching first aid to anyone who cares to learn, Elizabeth is teaching Ancient language and the systems of Atlantis, there are lot of other people who can teach too," Harry snapped back, startling Evvie who had been sleeping on the top of his head. "And don't come whining to me about how I'm not doing anything. I am learning the Ancient language, I'm learning healing from madam Pomfrey, all the while I am studying mind healing, and Occlumency and Legilimency and when ever I find the time I try to read up on psychology and wizard rituals - and all the while I also need to work as the counsellor for the people here because we don't have anyone better to do that particular job!"

Ron took a surprised step back as Harry glared at him. "If there's something you want to do," Harry snarled. "That you don't know how to do, sit your ass down with a book in your hands, and _learn_."

Couple of people walking pass them gave them a worried look as they fell into silence, Harry breathing heavily after his outburst. Finally, after moment of hesitation, Ron sighed. "I… I'm sorry mate. I just feel so useless around here. The Ancient language goes way past me and I just…" he sighed again, shaking his head. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Harry sighed. "I'm sorry for shouting at you," he added and glanced up where Evvie was hovering few feet upon his head. "I'm sorry, Evvie. I didn't mean to startle you. Come here," he said, reaching his hand up. The fairy hesitated for a moment before falling to his waiting palm, looking a bit anxious.

"I heard about that," Ron muttered with a faint grin. "A new adoptee?"

"Something like that," Harry sighed and lifted Evvie back to his head after making sure that the fairy wasn't scared. "Maybe you should talk with Kingsley or Elizabeth about not having anything to do. I'm sure they can find you something."

"Yeah, more chores. I just want to do something meaningful like everyone else," Ron sighed and then frowned. "Did you say you were looking into wizard rituals?"

"Well, not rituals, but ceremonies," Harry said while taking a step to continue along the corridor, motioning his best friend to join him. "Helen Scrivener, one of the muggles with us, is going to have a baby soon. She asked me if I could perform a naming ceremony for the baby," he explained. "I promised to see what I can do, as it seems she's dead set on having it be me who does it. I asked your mum about it, but she kind of…" Harry frowned. "Trailed away."

"Into remembering what we used to be when we were wee little babies?" Ron grimaced. "She does that a lot these days."

"Really?" the black haired wizard asked worriedly.

"Yeah. dad's fine with Atlantis, he loves the place, but mom's kind of… well, she keeps herself busy but I can see she misses the way things were back on earth. So she reminisces. A lot."

"Hmm…" Harry nodded. Maybe he should've stuck around a little longer - he had sort of made a run for it when Mrs. Weasley had gotten to the bed-wettings and thumb-suckings.

"Still. You running a naming ceremony," Ron murmured with a smirk. "Kind of different from what we planned, isn't this? We were meant to be Aurors, weren't we?"

Harry hesitated and then shrugged. "Maybe," he answered. "But I kind of like this better. I don't know. I got enough with fighting back on Earth. This sort of thing, helping people… it fits me a little better."

"Yeah. Probably," Ron muttered and sighed. "Maybe I should try to find something that would fit me too. I just… can't think of anything."

"Maybe you should try different things and see what you like?" Harry asked. "If nothing else, you should stop forcing it. And if that doesn't work, go ask Luna."

"Luna? Why?" Ron asked.

"She's the one who told me I would be the counsellor, and she was right about it. Maybe she can help you too," Harry shrugged. "She has a different way of looking at things. That's why her advices tend to be more insightful. Well, that's at least how I see it."

"Hmm… yeah. Maybe I should," Ron nodded. "What is she doing, by the way? Around Atlantis, I mean?"

"I… actually don't know," Harry frowned. All the times he had talked with her, he hadn't thought to ask what she was doing to keep herself busy. "Huh. I need to ask her the next time I see her."

x

When Harry found Mrs. Alisa Wood, she and her husband were not working with the Quidditch field - or net - but they were swimming. In the ocean, doing laps between piers. He blinked at the sight of the pair of them a little stupidly, before shrugging his shoulders, and walking where they had set up a ladder from the top of the pier to the water line. Daring people, Kingsley had said. There was several dozens of feet between the top of the pier and the water's surface. _Daring_. Weren't they least bit concerned about having the waves throw them against the pier and crush them?

Well, at least Harry now knew where Oliver had gotten his personality from.

He sat down to the pier's edge, waiting for the couple to finish their lap and return to his side of the pier. They seemed to notice him as, after making the lap, they didn't immediately turn around to repeat, but caught their breaths and then started to make their way up the ladder.

"Whoo, that was _bracing_," Alisa Wood said, shaking her head and squeezing the water out of her braided dark hair as she reached the pier's top. "Good afternoon, Mr. Potter. Thinking of swimming?"

"Nah, not so fond of water. I'm more of a air kind of guy," Harry answered, courteously looking away as she went to get her towel from a picnic basket near by. "How's the water?" he asked curiously.

"Absolutely perfect. Not too warm and not too cold," the woman grinned, handing the second towel to her husband who used it to dry his face. "I don't know why no one else around here has tried swimming yet. I don't think you could find a better place for it than this."

"Really? How so?" Harry asked, tilting his head curiously. He would've thought it was a bit dangerous, considering that they were in middle of an ocean. "Aren't you worried about currents at all?"

"With Atlantis' piers surrounding the water at all sides, there are no currents. Well, maybe if you get stupid enough and start diving, then you might get into trouble, but you have to get really deep for that," Mr. Wood answered, wrapping his towel casually around his shoulder and sitting down with a bottle of butterbeer he had fished from the basket. "It's almost like being in a bay, except there's no beach."

"Hmm... I didn't think of that," Harry muttered. "Have you been swimming here often?"

"Well, not really. This is the first time we came here to swim for the sake of the swimming - before we were just testing the water and the currents," Mr Wood answered, and rubbed his foot. "I sprained my ankle just the other day - Madam Pomfrey healed it, of course, but it's a little stiff now and swimming helps."

The younger wizard nodded and then raised his eyebrows curiously. "Testing the currents? Why?"

Mr. Wood took a sip of his butterbeer and motioned between the piers. "We're going to set the Quidditch net here. The Ruling Councillor has already approved it, though we got approvals from the Farming and the Divining Councillors as well. Before setting the net we need to make sure that the water was safe, in case any Quidditch player fell into the water."

"Now we're thinking of making a swimming area here. Maybe marking a safe swimming zone, and adding some real ladders... maybe a platform or two," Mrs. Wood nodded, and motioned at the water. "There's a piece of the pier which sticks out over there, see? it sort of descends into the water like a slope. We were hoping we could put a fence around it, so that it can be used as a place where kids could learn to swim."

"Though if we're going to move the city, then that might be unnecessary. Easier and safer to swim at actual beach, with who knows what sort of machines there are working beneath the pier," Mr Wood frowned. "Something has to be keeping the city buoyant and if there's a propeller down there or something... well, something no swimmer should go near."

"Right. You could ask the Learning Councillor's team the check it for you. If there's something dangerous down there, they can tell you more about it," Harry said.

"I think we will," Mrs. Wood agreed with a nod while joining them with a bottle of her own. "So, what can we do for you, Mr. Potter?"

"I wanted to have a talk with you, actually, Mrs. Wood. The Ruling Councillor informed me that you're going to be in the first off-world team," Harry answered.

"And I need to have a mental evaluation with you before I can go, yes, he told me about it," the woman nodded. "Understandable. So, what do I need to do? Is there some sort of test involved or... because I did rather hope I left written exams behind me when I left Hogwarts." She grinned. "I could to puzzles though, I'm good with puzzles."

"No written exams or puzzles involved, not really. Not yet, anyway, as this is the first case. I just wanted to have a talk with you, see what you think about this whole thing and so forth," Harry answered with a smile. "We can set an appointment for it if you'd like, or..."

"Nah, this is fine I think. Or is it a bother that Ed is here, should we do this privately?" the witch asked, glancing at her husband.

"No, it's fine. You wanted to join the off-world exploration too, wasn't it, but due to your injury you can't yet?" Harry asked, facing the wizard who nodded. "Well then, I can do both of your examinations at the same times," he said, while taking shrunken piece of parchment from his pocket along with a quill. After returning them to their real sizes, he charmed the quill to write down every spoken word, and started the mostly improvised questioning. "So, tell me, why do you want to join the off world exploration?"

The couple gave a look at the parchment as the quill wrote down Harry's question. Then they shrugged, and Mrs. Wood answered. "It's partially about wanting to contribute where our skills are best suited and partially wanting to see new things," she said. "Back on earth we travelled a lot, especially after Oliver left for Hogwarts. We got used to that, to travelling and seeing and experiencing new things that, though Atlantis is probably the newest thing we've ever seen, we are feeling a little... trapped here."

"We got our hands full, so it's not that we got nothing better to do," Mr. Wood said thoughtfully. "We got the Quidditch pitch to work with and we've been exploring the mainland a little, but the Quidditch pitch project is more Oliver's work than ours - and the mainland will be there later on. This off-world exploration, it's a unique chance."

Harry nodded. It probably felt like that to everyone who had applied as a volunteer, so he couldn't blame them for them. "What do you think of Atlantis?" he asked. "Are you settling in here well? Some people here are feeling homesick and a little alienated by the place, do you feel like that?"

"Well, probably not as much as the older generation," Mrs. Wood answered. "See, Ed is a muggleborn and I'm a half blood, so both of us have our roots in the muggle world. And during our travels we stayed often in muggle establishments and we visited plenty of muggle cities too. So all this technological stuff, it's not that foreign to us. This place is strange, sure, and it has been a bit of a work getting adjusted to this place, but it's been pretty exciting too."

"We've been trying to figure out how to work the city. We're having lessons with the Learning Councillor and we've been trying to learn to read the ancient language on our own," Mr. Wood added. "The language's not that hard, actually. It's pretty close to Latin, so it's not exactly impossible to learn. The writing though, that's a bit harder. But we're getting there. it helps that they've cleared some of the terminals for use, we've been able to study some history texts of the ancients which help with the language."

"That's good to hear," Harry nodded, and waited until the quill was finished writing. "What do you think you will encounter off world?" He then continued the questioning, though he could already tell that they both were more or less good to go. He couldn't see any hidden agendas or anxieties and they didn't have any pressing urge to prove themselves, which was good.

"I don't know. That's what makes it interesting," Mrs. Wood said with her husband nodding in agreement.

Harry smiled. Good answer.

x

Harry could almost immediately tell why Kingsley had picked Jacob Finnigan for the team - and he would've even without knowing that the man had military training. Jacob Finnigan, though completely muggle, had the air of strength and casual confidence about him that made him seem a man to trust with this sort of thing. It was in the way the man moved and stood and casually glanced around, keeping track of everything and everyone around him.

The fact that Harry found him helping plant one of the soon to be wheat fields helped. Finnigan was leading a group of kids along the pier, barking orders at one of them when they got too close to this or that building and telling someone else to careful around here or there, and not to get too close to the edge of the plantation area - and stay off the marked area, damnit, that's supposed to be a walkway through the fields.

Deciding not to bother the man's work yet, Harry sat to the edge of the pier and watched their progress along the field for a while. He soon came to the conclusion that Finnigan was a man who knew how to lead. It wasn't that the man was just ordering the kids around and the kids didn't look at all like they were doing something unpleasant like most would when doing a chore. Instead they were laughing and giggling every time the man told them what to do, and every now and then he stopped to tell someone how to do something better, he graciously gave compliments and by the sound of the man was telling some story in the meanwhile. In very simple methods, he had turned a chore into something enjoyable for the kids.

The Advising councillor smiled, leaning his chin to his knuckles and wondering why Kingsley hadn't made Finnigan the team leader. "Probably because it's hard to match a man who has training with dragons," he muttered. It took a whole lot of team work and situational awareness to tame dragons after all, and Charlie by the rumours had been very good at what he had done.

Evvie buzzed confusedly at his ear and with a smile Harry ruffled the fairy's hair. Then, as it seemed that Finnigan's group was about to finish, he stood up. "Let's have a talk with the man, shall we?"

Mr. Finnigan was brushing his hand when Harry reached him, and thanking the kids for work well done. "We can finish the story next time. How about you lot head back to see if Longbottom needs more help?" the man asked while Harry realised that the kids were mostly first and second year Hogwarts students. "I'm going to take a little break, but I'll be back with you in a moment, alright? Now, run along - don't leave your buckets! I'm definitely not carrying them back for you."

The kids laughed and headed off, leaving Harry alone with the muggle man. "I guess its time for my mental evaluation?" Finnigan asked while picking his empty seed bucket from the ground.

"Well, there's no hurry, we can set up a meeting later on. But it wouldn't take long; I only want to ask a couple of questions." Harry answered with a shrug, glancing over the freshly sown dirt. "Do you work around the gardens often?" he asked curiously.

"Sure. It's simple enough work and it's helping me keep fit," the man shrugged, smiling. "Was that a question? Should've I made up a complex, emotional answer?"

Harry laughed. "Just curious, and its best you stick with simple truth for now," he answered, taking out his parchment and self writing quill. "So, why do you want to join the off world exploration?" he started.

Mr. Finnigan's reasons were pretty much the same as Mr. and Mrs. Woods. He wanted to do something suitable for his skill set and see something new. He wasn't as much of an adventurer as the Woods, but he wanted to do his share of the work to ensure that Atlantis was running smoothly. "I heard from the Doctor that we need a power source, not just to move the city, but to defend it. She told me about these creatures that live in the Milkyway, the Goa'uld, and such, and about the enemies of the Ancients, the Wraith, and... well, I think it's important ensuring that whatever bad guys there are out there, they can't sneak up on us."

"Understandable," Harry nodded. That was actually better reason to go than the reason the Woods wanted to go. "So, you think the defence of this city is important?"

"Of course," the man nodded. "It's the only home we got here, and we're not going back, so..." the man trailed away and shrugged. "On Earth things were easy. We _knew_ the Earth pretty much as well as anyone can know a planet. On Earth we had armies and governments to watch out for our back, but we're alone here. So we need to do it ourselves. Especially since we don't know what's out there." He folded his arms. "That's part of the reason too, I guess. I want to know what's out there. I want to know what we're up against if we someday end up in trouble."

Harry nodded, not sure why but he was comforted by the man's words. Nothing nicer than to hear that someone wanted to ensure the safety of your home, he guessed. "So, how are you finding Atlantis?" he continued the questioning, though it was a moot point now. If anyone was fit to go off world, it was Jacob Finnigan.

x

"Well, that's definitely good to hear," Kingsley said when Harry made his report about Mrs Wood and Mr Finnigan in the next Council meeting. He turned to the other council members. "How is it going in your end? Sprout?"

"We've found the perfect place for the city, or as good as we can hope to find," the Farming Councillor said, standing up and making her way to a crystal screen that had been set near the council table. She pressed few buttons at the console and brought forth a 3d map of the shoreline. "Here," she said, motioning at a spot. "The water is deep enough here for Atlantis to settle on to the spot. Also, see here? The peninsula here would stretch towards the city, so we would easily be able to build a bridge between the city and the peninsula, it wouldn't even need to be impossibly long."

She shifted the map a little and pointed. "Why I chose this place, though, is because of this." She was motioning at a bay next to the peninsula. "It's good for fishing, and the cliffs here protect it from worse of the sea winds, so we can turn this forest here into farmland without too much trouble. Also, it helps that there's a lake near by and river which goes... here," she shifted the map, displaying the geography. "Also, the climate is pretty much the same which we have now, so that will work best for what we've planted so far."

"Perfect," Kingsley nodded while the others agreed. Harry smile faintly, looking at the bay's shore line. It looked like a place meant for swimming. "What's the distance between that place and where we are now?"

"About seventeen thousand miles, give or take," Sprout shrugged, making the rest of the council wince.

"Well, we already knew it's not exactly a walking distance," the Ruling Councillor murmured, turning to Elizabeth. "If we get the city moving, how long will the trip take?"

"It depends on _how_ we move the city," the woman answered, standing up and taking Sprout's spot at the screen. She brought up another image, this of Atlantis. "If we float the city across the ocean like a raft, it will take better part of a month - and it will be a little difficult. We will need the smaller ships, here, here and here," she pointed, making small dots appear to the map near three of the piers. "They will tow the city and steer it. Atlantis is not meant for this sort of movement, so it doesn't have steering capabilities of this sort. However, the other way, which would be flying the city..."

She made the image shift and as they watched the image of Atlantis lifted off the ocean's surface and floated over it towards the mainland. "It would be easier on that aspect, but harder on others. Firstly, we'd need someone to pilot the city and that's more difficult to do than we care to think right now. Secondly, we need at least a fully charged ZPM to do it, if we want to do it without damaging the gardens."

"Why so?" Sprout asked, leaning forward.

"Because only way to preserve the gardens would be to have the city's shield up. And flying the city with the shield, well, that takes lot of power. Half charged ZPM wouldn't be enough," Elizabeth said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Which method would you suggest?" Kingsley asked.

"Honestly? The first method. It would use less power and lessen the risk of catastrophic failure," Elizabeth shrugged. "No one here is exactly qualified to pilot the city, after all. And if someone tries, and fails, well... it's a risk I would prefer not to take just now. The first method is more troublesome and will take much longer, but it is safer."

Harry nodded in agreement. "I think it would be better for the people here too. Having the city fly would creep out lot of people - and month would give us more than enough time to prepare for the effects of the relocation."

"And in the meanwhile we could get the bridge build," Kingsley nodded. "That way it would maybe even be ready before we got there."

"Yes, but doesn't all of this depend on whether or not we find a power source?" Entau asked thoughtfully.

"Yes, of course," Elizabeth nodded. "We can't move the city without a ZPM."

"In that case shouldn't we be concentrating onto the success of the off-world mission first?" the centaur asked, folding her arms.

"Right you are," Kingsley nodded and looked at Elizabeth. "We have the team ready, more or less. Do you have a world selected?"

"I do, the first one on my list," Elizabeth nodded. "I've also taken the privilege of arranging some safety methods. My team have perfected the low-threat shield to the gate, it will be soon fitted around the immediate gate area. I have also found out a way of checking the planet before people go in - as in making sure that the planet is habitable and safe for humans."

"I thought that there are gates only on worlds which are habitable?" McGonagall asked with a frown.

"Normally, yes. But those worlds might've changed in the time after the gate was placed on it, and it is impossible to tell whether or not it is safe to go through without checking," Elizabeth shrugged. "On earth we had these devices called MALPs - Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probes - which checked the habitability of a planet for us. We don't have those here, so we came up with something else."

With this said, she returned to her seat to take out a box she had placed on the floor. From that box she pulled put a pair of glasses and... a bird. "George Weasley actually made this - it is one of the products his and his brother's shop intended to sell back on Earth," she said, placing the bird to the table. "He calls it the Little Bird and as far as I can tell, it was meant to be a spying device."

"How does it work?" Kingsley asked curiously, while Harry leaned forward to see the bird more clearly. It looked like real little bird, it even moved around like it was alive. Any real bird would've flied away by now, though, so it was obviously a magical creation.

"Anything the bird sees can be seen in the glasses," Elizabeth said, holding the spectacles up. "Now, it's not perfect, and will not tell much about a planet's gravity or atmosphere or so forth. But if the connection between the bird and the glasses works through the gate, we can at least use them to see that the Stargate on the other side is on an actual planet and not in space, for example."

"Yeah. That... would be bad," Kingsley nodded thoughtfully. "Good work. So, with that you're good to go?"

"Yes, with this we're good to go," Elizabeth nodded. "But I would like to meet my team first and check that we have everything we need and know what to do and so forth."

"Excellent," Kingsley nodded. "You do that. Inform me once you're ready and we can get this show on the road."

x

I wasn't going to post this until I managed to write at least a little of the next chapter, but it's been a while already and I have writer's block the size of a mountain - been going on a month now - so I guess waiting's not really helping the matters. And I'm hoping comments might give me a kick in the rear, sort of speak. And for those who have been asking, probably since about the second chapter, yes, eventually, there will be a timeskip. Dunno when, though. Especially with this blockage on my way.

Ffnet screwed me sideways, so now you get brand new x scene breaks. Enjoy.


	8. Clothing Interlude

**Clothing interlude**

The day when their actual galactic exploration started dawned in usual Atlantis manner - sunny with just the right amount of clouds. Though Harry wasn't part of the whole affair more than as one of the Council members and his job concerning it had been more or less done once everything had been decided and once he had finished his so called mental evaluations, he couldn't help but feel excited.

Everyone was excited, the whole city buzzing with anxious energy. In the few days Elizabeth had demanded they wait so that she could get the team properly informed about what the whole travelling through the Gate to other planets was right, many balls had been set on rolling. More and more people had volunteered to be part of the exploration teams - most of those volunteers under the age limit of twenty. Pomfrey, who was now teaching more than she was healing, had moved her practice to the Academy building, where she was now setting up a training hospital of sorts. Kingsley and McGonagall had fought over the whole matter until it had been decided that all the volunteers would start pre-training at the Academy - duelling, protective charms, emergency healing and human transfiguration and muggle fighting methods, among other things, would be taught to the trainees.

Harry had also started preparing for his upcoming duties. Depending on how their first mission would go, more would no doubt follow eventually, and before that every person would, on Kingsley's order, stop by him. The simple questioning he had put his first "patients" through wouldn't do for the long run, he knew, as there was more to humans and their minds than just what a person could see or hear them do or say. So, he had turned one of his many extra bedrooms into an actual office, and started compiling books to previously empty bookshelves about mind healing and psychology. He had also started considering finding himself an actual assistant.

"Are you somehow dissatisfied with my performance, master Corun Án?" Kreacher had asked when Harry had told him about it. "I think I have been performing as best as I can do - especially considering that there isn't much for me to do aside from perfunctory cleaning and taking care of young master Ted. I have been following your orders as best as I can, too," he added, somewhat self-consciously running his still slightly knobbly hand over the front of his new uniform.

The elves had finally bent into Harry's and the other human's requests, and put aside their towels and pillow cases. The elves now wore simple tunics and trousers somewhat similar to what the Ancients wore in the holograms - recycled, Harry suspected, from the towels and pillowcases. They were all white and somewhat bland, and fit the elves surprisingly well. They had even something like rank insignias in them - the elder elves like Kreacher had hoods in their tunics while the youngest elves wore vests instead of tunics.

"I know that, and I am perfectly satisfied with you, Kreacher, don't doubt that," Harry had assured him. "But I need you to look after Teddy when I and Andromeda are busy - and we tend to be most of the time. In those times, you don't have the time to work as my assistant. Also, I need someone who knows… something about this, too," he added, motioning around in his new counsellor's office. "Someone who knows a little bit about actually being an assistant, who can make my schedule actually work."

Not to mention the fact that good quarter of Atlantis's population had nothing to do with their time. Sure, there was lot to do and not enough people to do it, but not everyone's skills worked with everything - and the jobs that didn't require much skill were already full. And then there were those who simply weren't fit for stuff like farming or working in the hydroponics garden, or some other things.

And the longer people were without stuff to do, the more bored and lethargic they got. Harry had gotten reports from some of the DA members - and from Rosmerta - about few people who had taken to some… unseemly past times. So far there had been close to no problems among the people of Atlantis, but there had been scuffles, especially in Six Broomsticks where people with regrets had drank too much and then found somewhat poor ways of expressing their problems.

Of course, Madam Pomfrey could heal the results of a fist fight in a heart beat, but that wasn't really the point. Now that they were no longer in danger of dying of hunger, people were getting looser and no longer walking like on eggshells - and that wasn't necessarily a good thing. It had led Kingsley into deciding that, as good as the volunteers were at what they did, they needed an actual official security force - Atlantis police, as it was.

"I probably should've done it sooner," the Ruling Councillor had admitted while he and Harry enjoyed a small break between meetings on the balcony outside the council's usual meeting room. From the balcony, they could see the spot where the Wood's were setting up the net for the Quidditch pitch. "But people here were relatively peaceful and the volunteers did a good job keeping the peace. But with this new source of excitement, people are getting tiny little bit unrulier."

"And it will probably only get worse," Harry had agreed while absently snatching Evvie from the air before the little fairy could get caught in the wind currents. "So, what do you have mind for the task force?"

"Nothing that specific really - mostly what they've been doing so far. Keeping people in check and from wandering into dangerous zones. The city exploration could be handed mostly to them too - or it could be handled between the security force and Elizabeth's people. And maybe, later, part of the security force would also be involved in the gate travel. Mostly I just want them to be the Aurors of Atlantis."

"We don't have that many trained Aurors here. Just you, actually," Harry said, frowning.

"There's Hestia Jones - she went through the Auror Academy, but never really enlisted," Kingsley answered. "I was thinking of putting her in charge - she's already doing it to some extend. If there is a commander among the volunteers, it's either her or Gabriella Delacour, and Gabriella is a bit too young."

Harry nodded in agreement. "I don't think it would be too smart to push Gabriella completely aside, though," he said warningly. "Her cousins trust and follow her."

"True, " Kingsley agreed. "I'm thinking of making Hestia the primary chief of the task force, and Gabriella and someone from the DA her captains, sort of speak. I was first thinking Neville for DA, but he's too busy with the farming."

Harry thought about it for a moment. "Ginny, I think," he said. "Either her, or Susan Bones. They both are capable and have some experience."

Kingsley nodded. "I'll think about it."

He had thought about it pretty quickly. The Atlantis Auror Corp had been made more or less official in the day before the first gate travel would occur. Hestia had been appointed chief, like Kingsley said, while Gabriella and Susan were in charge of separate divisions, sort of speaking. Ginny, Harry was surprised to hear, had declined the offer to take the position of the DA division's official leader.

"I'll still work with Susan, of course, but I have something else in mind," Ginny had said with somewhat secretive smile, and Harry had left it at that.

While this had been going on, Elizabeth had put Charlie Weasley, Alisa Wood and Jacob Finnigan through what Jacob had named _'Gate travel, Aliens, and First Contact 101'_. Harry had sat through her first lesson out of curiosity - along with whole lot of other people and majority of the rest of the council. It consisted mostly of what she knew and remembered of Earth's Stargate Command and their functions, as well as mission reports and such she had written down as well as she could recall.

It could be summarised pretty simply with; Be polite and goddamn careful.

Busy, busy, busy

Stretching, Harry headed to his closet to get a robe to wear, only to find that the entire wardrobe was empty except for underwear and socks. "Kreacher!" he called, frowning faintly, and looked to his right when the House Elf appeared. "You didn't take all my clothes to be washed at the same time, did you?" the wizard asked suspiciously.

"I did send some of them to be washed, yes, others are with Madam Malkin for modifications," Kreacher said. "She promised that the first modifications would be ready before you woke up, master Corun Án. Do you wish me to get them?"

"Modifications?" Harry asked slowly. "Why are my robes being modified? I didn't order you to do it."

"No. Mistress Andromeda did - along with Mistress Weasley and the Ruling Counsellor agreed with it," Kreacher answered, with something in his eyes that could've almost been called mischievous glee. "I believe Mistress Andromeda thought that wearing school robes wasn't… fitting for the Corun Án of Atlantis. And I must say I agreed with her."

"You do?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"Why yes. Master Corun Án shouldn't be walking around in rags," Kreacher answered.

Harry narrowed his eyes. "What did they have Malkin do to my robes?" he asked slowly and patiently.

"Modify them so that they'd be fitting of master Corun Án," Kreacher answered with equal patience, and yes, his eyes were indeed sparkling with mischievousness. "Shall I get them for you, master? She should have at least one set ready."

"Please do," Harry grunted, already dreading what they looked like. Kreacher, despite how he looked now and how good the uniforms looked on him and the other elves, had been a bit resentful about it, and Harry suspected that Atlantis hadn't completely changed his spiteful nature. And if Andromeda and Ginny were on it - with Kingsley agreeing - then it was sure to be something insufferably pompous…

"Oh, Merlin," Harry groaned as the elf returned with the first set of robes. For a moment he felt like banging his head onto something, but he satisfied it by running his hand over his face in exasperation. "How bad are the others?" he asked.

"I believe these are finished because they were the easiest to modify, Master," Kreacher said, almost managing to hide the glee in his voice but just failing. "Perhaps you would wish to try them on? I do believe they would suit you well."

"Of course you believe that," Harry growled. "Do I have any normal robes left here?" he asked, casting a mournful look at the empty closet. "Anywhere?"

"This is the only clean set of male robes you have, master," Kreacher said almost apologetically. "But rest of the robes should be ready in few days."

Harry threw a glare at him. "So, I either wear those, or head out in my pyjamas to ask someone to borrow me theirs, huh?" he asked, and wondered that if he actually did head out in jus pyjamas, the people he asked would find that all their robes had been taken to be washed as well. "I thought you didn't find anything to complain about the uniforms - hell, you elves chose the design yourself, didn't you? Why are you taking it out on me?"

Kreacher seemed to honestly consider it, before smiling in a way that reminded Harry sharply of goblins. "I think the saying goes; misery loves company."

Harry sighed, and took the robes from the elves' hands. It took some figuring out how to pull them on - there were three layers in them - but eventually he did manage it, and found that there was no less than forty nine buttons in the front. "Lovely," he muttered as he pulled the last buttons of the high collar shut, and then turned himself into the full body mirror in the wardrobe door.

They were pompous. Dark green with sleeves long enough to each the hem and over cloak that would no doubt billow when he walked. There was golden and black embroidery over the chest and along the seams in long, thick bands, and the entire hem of the over cloak was covered in black embroidery. The high collar was surrounded by the folds of the over cloak's hood that had been intentionally sewn so that it made his shoulders seem wider, making the robes look almost ceremonial. The final nail in the coffin was the green belt, turn almost golden with embroidery, that went around his waist and rested on the front, with tassels and all.

"I'm going to kill you all," Harry said, looking at his reflection with disbelief while Evvie, who had just woken up, flew excited circles around him, running his fairy hands happily over the golden embroidery. Harry shooed him aside and shook his head. "Yep. I'm so going to kill you all. "

"Of course you are, master Corun Án," Kreacher agreed almost pleasantly, and handed him a brimmed wizard's hat to match the attire. "Would you like some breakfast now?"

Harry glared at him, but accepted the hat. He stuffed excitedly buzzing Evvie into it before pulling the hat on his head and marching off to check up on his godson. Behind him Kreacher gave into the urge he had no doubt been smothering for a while and laughed at him.

_xx_

Merry Christmas! I actually wanted to put up a whole new chapter for Christmas, but I didn't manage to finish it on time, and I don't want to upload it unfinished because it would mess up my mental order of things. So, I took the first scene alone, and uploaded just that, hopefully I can get the whole new chapter out soon.

My apologies for possible grammar errors.


	9. VIII, Progress

**VIII chapter**

The first reaction people had to his ridiculous robes was actually pretty nice one - they didn't at first realise it was him, and just stared silently. It gave Harry hope that though the robes were more than little over done and looked more like something Dumbledore would've worn, they weren't _that_ eye catching. Other people had really well done robes too, Kingsley and McGonagall both wore pretty nice robes, so it wasn't exactly unusual….

And then people caught that it was _him_ in the green robes.

"Good morning, master Corun Án," they said, lifting their hats or curtseying as he walked past them. "Greetings, Corun Án," said one of the centaurs, bowing his head slightly and his company of two witches and one wizard followed the gesture. "Master," said two house elves in midst of cleaning a water spill, both bowing. Worst of all were the people who said nothing, and just bowed at him.

"Someone's blood is going to spill," Harry said when he sat Ginny with Charlie, Mrs. Wood and Mr. Finnigan in the Gate room. "It might even _splatter_!"

"Well, well, look at you," she answered, ignoring the threat and taking him in. "Very nice. Malkin did a really good job on that one - I can't wait to see the rest. Come here Harry, spin around a little; I want to see the rest."

"No, I will not spin around a little. People are _bowing_ at me, Ginny!" Harry growled at her, ignoring how Charlie sniggered in the side, and how Mrs. Wood and Mr. Finnigan were looking at him. "Bowing! And not just the elves! Was this your idea? Kreacher was in on it, sure, and so was Andromeda and Kingsley, and they will be properly executed for it, but I bet you were the one who thought this would be the right idea. So, was it?"

"Now, what if it was?" Ginny asked amusedly, resting her hands at her hips. "You didn't think that we were going to let you run around on your old Hogwarts robes forever? Harry, not only are all your robes way to small on you now, but you're not exactly just anyone nowadays. And you got to admit it," she added, grinning. "You look good. You look like you ought to, Corun Án of Atlantis."

"I look like a pompous git!" Harry growled. "I look like a _Malfoy_ in these robes!"

"Ah, don't be silly. Malfoys' robes were no where near as moderate," she disagreed, and nudged her big brother's side. "He looks good, doesn't he? Like a proper council member."

"Hmm," Charlie said, thoughtfully raking his eyes up and down. "You know what's missing? A medallion of some sort. You know, like the Minister's medallion. It would fit those robes nicely."

"Yeah, you're right," Ginny said, brightening up. "It would be cool if all the council had something like that - you know, insignia of authority or something?"

"No, no, no, no," Harry snapped at the two of them. "Isn't this bad enough? And what are you doing, telling me I need more sparkly things on me when this… this robe already is as glittery as it is? Feel some remorse, woman!"

"Cute, Harry, very cute," she giggled, patting his cheek compassionately. "Now run along to do some councillor type of things, why don't you? Or go and kill Kingsley - he was the one who decided to recruit Kreacher to rummage through your closet."

Harry narrowed his eyes at her. "I will have you answer for this," he threatened, before giving in and sighing. "And I've been trying to kill Kingsley for a while, somehow I end up getting really busy when ever it comes to mind," he said mournfully, before turning to look at amused Mrs. Wood and Mr. Finnigan. "So, you're preparing for your first off world mission, I see? Where's Elizabeth?"

"With George and Magee. They're getting the Little Bird ready - George managed to add sound and speaking function into it with her help, but it's been causing some glitches," Charlie said, and pulled out a pocket watch. "We're set to go in an hour, so there's no hurry yet."

Harry nodded, and looked at the other two. "Excited?"

"Absolutely, I can't wait!" Alisa Wood thrilled, running her hand over the many pockets of her leather robes. "Still checking I have everything with me. You can't have too much equipment in case you get stranded, you know."

"Unless it brings you down," Jacob Finnigan mused, giving her a look. He was dressed into muggle clothes, and had a somewhat large backpack resting on the floor beside him.

"With lightening charms and shrinking charms that's not exactly a problem for a witch," Mrs. Wood grinned and then offered; "I can put some charms on your bag, if you want me to?"

"Thanks, but not this time," he answered with somewhat suspicious look about his face. "I'm not sure if I trust these… lightening charms and such that much yet."

"Suit your self," she answered cheerfully, and pulled out what looked like a shrunken barrel. "Hm… should be enough water for few days," she muttered, and went back to rummaging.

"Do you have a plan ready?" Harry asked, turning his attention to Charlie.

"Something like it, though it's more along the lines of mode of operation, than a plan," the elder wizard answered. "Doctor Weir will have the lead and if we make contact with any locals, she'll do the talking. If so, it's my and Jacob's job to track down the ZPM if there are any in the planet. Aside from that, we go together and stay together, and see where that will take us."

Harry nodded, thinking that making any more detailed plans without knowing where they were actually trying to go was probably hard. "What if you get in trouble?"

"Depends on what sort of trouble. We will be leaving one of the Little Bird's near the gate in any case, so if we do get in trouble and can't reach the gate ourselves, we can use it to dial and call back," Charlie said. "Hopefully the magical communication between the Little Birds and the glasses work through the gate, so we should be able to use them to communicate through the gate. If not, I have the two way mirror Hagrid used in the beginning, we know for sure that it at least does work."

"Well, we will be holding the gate on low security shield if you come through without warning, you won't go splat on the primary shield," Kingsley's voice promised from above, and glancing up Harry saw him on the second level, leaning his elbows to a metal baluster. The Ruling Councillor grinned. "That you under all that fancy stuff, Harry? Looking good."

"Bite me," Harry snapped, but the words lost some effectiveness thanks to Evvie, who just crawled from underneath his hat and started to play on the brim instead. Kingsley's grin widened, and Harry very nearly pulled his wand on the man. Some bat-bogies would do the man's face some good, he thought.

As the minutes trickled by, the rest of the Council joined them - except for Sprout who was at the mainland. They weren't alone, though - lot of other people, who wanted to see the first gate travel in Atlantis, joined them as well in the gate room. They all held a respectful distance towards the gate as their chatter filled the room, only broken when someone stepped forward to fire their sequence of spells at the gate room's Spellstone

"Are we ready for this?" McGonagall asked, as Harry joined the other council members on the upper levels. She looked down to the three members of their first team worriedly - Elizabeth still hadn't joined them.

"As ready as we can be, under the circumstances," Kingsley answered while leaning his hip onto the baluster and looking down as well. "They're well equipped, skilled and experienced - and Elizabeth has shown them what they need to prepared for. Without more information and actual first hand experience, we can't do more than that."

"But what if something goes wrong, what if we lose them?" McGonagall insisted. "What is we loose Elizabeth? Her expertise is invaluable to us."

"I think they all are invaluable to us, but she's right about us burying our heads in sand," Harry said. "It won't do us any good on the long run."

"And sometimes risks have to be made. I know you're not used to it - as a teacher, you've never need to make this sort of choices, but they have to be made," Kingsley agreed, before glancing up to Entau who too was looking down to the lower level of the Gate room. "What do you think, Divining Councillor? How will this mission go?"

"I'm sorry to say that even centaurs do not have the eyes to see the fates of other planets," she answered with a wry smile. "But you can ask me again once they return."

"Well, it's nice to know that they do return, at least," Kingsley said with a smile, and then glanced away. Harry followed his gaze and saw George walking in with Elizabeth, who wearing a brand new muggle clothes she had apparently had made specifically for the mission. With her white hair and aged features, it was somewhat startling to see her walking in with a military vest on.

"We're ready, the Birds are as stable as we can make them under the circumstances," the woman said, glancing at George who was fiddling with pair of glasses - there was a piece of metal attached to them, that arched forward like microphone of a headset. The bird itself was sitting on George's shoulder, its tail twitching and head turning this way and that.

"I have another bird and glasses with me," Elizabeth added, holding a leather case. "If the Bird works, we should be able to use them to communicate through the gate even without Patronuses."

"But the Patronus will still be tested," Kingsley said. "You managed to add sound to the Bird?"

"It should work," George said, while nodding his greetings to Annie Hall, who was technically his superior. "Give me a month, and I can make it perfect. After that I'm going to make more of them."

"The traders of Meditation Hall will help," the Trading Councillor added. "We've already pledged to supply all equipment for missions like these more or less free of charge."

"More or less?" Kingsley asked amusedly.

"We still need materials, so donations made by the Council would be much appreciated," the woman said innocently. "We were hoping that we might get one of the ships to our own use - to send our people to the mainland to specifically get materials for us."

"We'll talk about it," the Ruling Councillor promised. "Now, let's concentrate onto the present. Do you need anything else, Elizabeth?"

"Not really," she answered, glancing down to the Gate room, and nodding greeting to her team. "Just someone to dial the gate and George to send the bird through."

"We can do that," Kingsley nodded, and turned to the controls, where some people were waiting for their orders. "Dial the address."

And so it was dialled. Harry watched with fascination, as the symbols of the gate dashed around the ring, one at the time. The triangles on the ring lit up with a sound that seemed to echo in the now silent room, where everyone watched with anticipation - and then jumped back in almost perfect unison, as the gate lit up and the centre erupted in vertical geyser of what looked like glowing water.

"Was it like that back on earth? Did it explode like that?" Harry asked curiously, while Evvie cooed in amazement on the brim of his hat.

"Pretty much," Kingsley agreed, and turned to George. "Do your thing."

"Yes, sir," George grinned, and put the glasses on. The bird on his shoulder jerked its head up, and immediately fluttered to its wings, flying like feathered dart over the gate room and right into the watery surface of the gate. They all watched George, who seemed to be staring at nothing. Then, "Woah," George muttered.

"You see something?" Kingsley asked, peering at the glasses. Harry could see what - from their side, it didn't look like anything special had happened, the glasses remained the same - and completely imageless. Probably one of WWW security measures - way to keep from getting caught in middle of spying someone.

"Yeah. Um, there's a forest - the gate is in an open area in middle of one, on sandy clearing," George said, blinking. "Wait, I'll get the Bird up and above the forest," said, and turned to look upwards. He grinned as the others shared confused looks. "The Bird goes where you are looking, so I look up, the Bird goes up."

"I was wondering how those things were controlled," Harry muttered and Kingsley nodded thoughtfully.

There was moment of silence as George steered the Bird. Then George turned his eyes down again, and looked around, going as far as spinning where he stood. "Okay, it's a forest - goes on and on behind the gate, but there's a road going through the forest towards where it ends," he pointed. "There's smoke coming somewhere from there. I think there might be a village or town there."

"Can you check it out?" Kingsley asked, exchanging looks with Elizabeth.

"Sure thing," George said, and for a long while it seemed like he was just standing there, doing nothing. Probably waiting for the bird to fly close enough. "There's houses," George said, turning his eyes downwards. "About two dozen or so. They got thatched roofs."

"Can you see any people?" Elizabeth asked, shifting her footing and seeming almost giddy. "Are they humanoid?"

"Give me a moment," George said, and turned his face further down. "I can see something, wait…" another moment of silence, as George turned his eyes up again, then to side, no doubt navigating the Bird around in the town. "They look like humans," he finally said. "Hands, hair, faces, clothes… pretty muggle like even."

"If there are humans there, then it means that the planet should be safe," Elizabeth said excitedly, and held out her hand. "Can I see?"

"Wait, let me land the bird," George said, and frowned at the glasses for a moment, before pulling them off. "Here."

"Humans in another galaxy? How does that work?" Harry wondered.

"I think the Ancients brought humans here from Earth. The gate was open between Earth and Atlantis for a long while, before the ancients left." Elizabeth answered, quickly pulling the glasses on, and blinking. "This is amazing," she whispered, turning her head slightly. "They are humans! Let me see if I can get close enough to hear them speak…"

"You want to eavesdrop their conversations?" McGonagall asked, confused.

"I want to hear their language," the Learning Councillor answered, turning her head slightly, and then holding the small speaker attached to the glasses closer to her ear. For a moment she was silent, before blinking. "They're speaking… English."

"That's good for us, isn't it?" Kingsley asked.

"Yes, well… it is. But it shouldn't happen. It's another planet in another _galaxy_ - they shouldn't be speaking English," Elizabeth frowned, and turned her head to direct the bird elsewhere. "It's not possible for them to have learned the language - it didn't come to its current form until much, much later after Atlantis was abandoned."

"But it's still good for us, so I say, let them speak English all they want," Kingsley said, and gave the woman a look. "Do you still want to go, or is a common language a barrier of some sort for you?" he asked amusedly.

Elizabeth snapped her eyes up, frowning. Then she shook her head and undressed the glasses. "Of course I do, now more than before," she said, and handed the glasses to George who quickly put them on again. "Probably best we get going now."

"It's your call," Kingsley said solemnly, and after moment of thought, the aged muggle woman nodded, lifted her hand into something like a salute, and then headed off to join her team. She exchanged few words with Charlie and the others, before looking up to the Council, all of whom were at the baluster now, looking down.

"Wish us good luck," Charlie said.

"Good luck," Kingsley answered with a smile while many others in the room joined the wishing. "Happy hunting."

"Be safe," McGonagall added, looking still a little displeased with the proceedings but apparently trying to keep it to herself. Harry smiled at her, and rested his hand on top of hers. She gave him a tight smile in gratitude, and while the rest of the council bid their good lucks and good byes - Annie Hall telling them to see if they can find someone to trade with - they watched how the first off world team of Atlantis headed off on their first mission.

x

After the team had left, there was little more left to do than wait and see - and Harry had too much to do to just sit around and watch a silent gate. So did pretty much everyone else. While the people who were usually in charge of watching the control room stayed, under strict orders to inform the council the moment something happened, Harry headed off with Kingsley so that the two of them could perform the very first check up with the Auror Corp of Atlantis.

"Isn't it a bit too early to be checking on them now? They've only been official about a day," Harry noted out, absently straightening his hat which Evvie was very happily using as a slide. "They shouldn't have had enough time to do… well, pretty much anything really."

"They've been doing the same job for months now, Harry, I think they've gotten more than just a little done by now," Kingsley answered. "I think they already have things in their mind they want to talk with us and clear up, something they haven't thought of before really because they weren't official, but which they now know. I would've talked with them about it yesterday, but I figured it would be best to get them adjusted to the idea of being Aurors first."

"Aurors without that much training," Harry mused, snatching the little fairy from the air, and pushing him under the hat. Evvie let a happy whirring noise, and then started playing with his hair. Hopefully he would tire himself out soon after, and fall asleep.

"Hestia will teach them what they need to know," Kingsley said calmly. "I can do it too, if I have the time. For now though let's concentrate on making sure that they can do their jobs."

Harry opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, a static rattle ran through the corridor, making him glance up. A Kingsley did the same, and they both stopped as few second later, a familiar voice bladed through the corridor. "_Good morning, Atlantis, and welcome to the first test transmission of Radio Atlantis_," Lee Jordan spoke merrily through the city speakers. "_In where you will get updates of the recent goings and goings of our beloved Council, and whatever projects we have going on at the moment here at beautiful and magical city of ours_."

Harry blinked, and glanced down at Kingsley. "What?" he asked, but the Ruling Councillor lifted his hand to silence him as Lee continued.

"_First order of business - first successful gate travel from Atlantis within the Pegasus galaxy! As far as we know of course_," Lee continued. "_Now some, or all, of you should know about our most recent endeavour to better everyone's life here in this city of wonder. Some days ago the council came into the conclusion that the lives of everyone in Atlantis would be much better if we were close to the mainland - and I have to say, I certainly wouldn't mind feeling some ground beneath my feet every now and then without having to take six hour ride on a Vacuumer. I'm sure all of you have felt the same_."

"A _what_?" Harry mumbled but Kingsley only grinned.

"_So, anyway, the Council with the help of Learning Councillor Elizabeth Weir's team of inventors and engineers devised a plot that would allow us to actually move the city across the ocean and closer to the land_," Lee merrily prattled on. "_The whole plot is a bit too technical for me, but I've gathered that it isn't as easy as one would think - not that anyone in their right minds would ever think it to be easy. Merlin only knows how much the city weighs, so it's not as if we can just row it where we want it. So, we swing back to the question that bothered us when we first arrived - power. Spellstones alone don't do the trick, so something else is required - something inherently Atlantean…_"

"I suppose you got the whole radio thing working," Harry mused, as Lee continued on, explaining the move and the mission off world.

"Yeah, Lee very nearly jumped at the opportunity," Kingsley agreed with a grin. "I decided to give him free hands with the transmissions, as he knows the best when it comes to that sort of thing - only mandate he's following is to get as much information conveyed to the city as possible."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, tilting his head to the side as Lee introduced the team members and explained why they were chosen, with explanations of the age limits and such. "_So if your volunteer application was shot, don't worry, you weren't the only one_," Lee said merrily, before moving on.

"What's a Vacuumer?" Harry finally asked.

"Ah, I think I heard one of the muggles calling the ships _vacuum cleaners_," Kingsley said, snorting softly. "Since we normally fly with brooms, the idea of us updating to vacuum cleaners caused some amusement among the muggle population. I guess the name stuck - and with Lee announcing it like that, soon I bet it'll be official."

"A Vacuumer," Harry muttered, trying to get a feel to the name. "I guess it could be worse," he finally muttered, shrugging his shoulders. "What were we talking about, before Lee interrupted us?"

"Us making sure that Hestia and her people can do their jobs properly," the Ruling Councillor said after moment of thought, as they continued along the corridor like they had before the interruption by Radio Atlantis.

The younger wizard nodded, before frowning slightly. "Is that why you want me to come with you? To make an evaluation on their mental state?"

"That, and to be my moral compass," the Ruling Councillor answered, giving him a look. "You know what having Aurors means?" he asked and Harry shrugged his shoulder, pretty sure that the man was after more than what he thought it meant. "It means having law. Needing law. So far we haven't needed it, but if we have people keeping the law, we need to have a law for them to keep. I know what sort of laws I would make, but whether they'd fit this place and these people is another thing."

"And you need me to be there to filter that. I understand," Harry answered and then frowned. "Except I'm pretty sure this is what the Council is for. If you're thinking of starting to make laws by yourself, I'm blowing the whistle and calling the rest of the council - and then I will help them kick your ass out of it."

Kingsley snorted. "Nice to know you have your moral compass nice and steady. No, I'm not going to start making laws by myself. But I think I am going to start planning them after this meeting - or at least some sort of set of general rules. I need you to… moderate my plans."

"That I can do," Harry answered, still giving the man a look. "Power's not getting to your head yet, is it, Kingsley?"

"I'll tell you what; you'll be the first to know if it does," the dark skinned man snorted.

Harry nodded with satisfaction, while smoothing his hand uneasily over the chest of his unnecessarily fancy robes. "Laws, huh?" he asked thoughtfully. "The Council will be deciding on the laws of Atlantis. You know, before this moment… I don't think it has really felt real to me. The Council - being part of a government. The whole thing. But laws, that's… that's real."

"Don't worry - we won't be having a four-inch thick law book just yet. Just set of simple rules, I bet. Kill and get kicked off the pier. That sort of things," Kingsley grinned.

They soon came to one of the transporters, from where Kingsley led Harry through couple of corridors and halls into area which had apparently been designated as the headquarters of the Auror Corps. "Neat," Harry muttered in appreciation. It had some similarities to the control room - had some of the same equipment. The main thing, Harry saw immediately, was one of the big screens which were constantly displaying the life-signatures of everyone on Atlantis.

"Councillors," Hestia Jones, who had been talking with couple of beautiful blonde witches, looked up.

"Commander," Kingsley answered with a nod and a grin. "Listening to the radio?" he asked, nodding above them where Lee was still talking about recent happenings of the city.

"Yes - it's been very informative," Hestia said, folding her arms. "Was it your idea?"

"Team effort," the Ruling Councillor answered modestly, and glanced around in the room, taking in the progress. "How is it coming?"

"Pretty good so far. Hermione has been helping us set the equipment up along with some others, though there is still some work to be done, and we still need some help with understanding the equipment - I for one have no idea how to read the bloody language," the black haired woman said, looking around. "We'll be setting some desks and such here, getting some shelves and so forth - well turn this into proper office in no time at all."

"Sounds good," Kingsley agreed, while Harry peered at the big crystal screen. "You need any help here, any more people?"

"We have more than enough volunteers. Some equipment wouldn't go amiss, though - protective vests and such," Hestia said, shrugging her shoulders. "But there is no hurry, as there isn't that much to do yet."

Kingsley nodded, looking around. "So, how about you and your two captains have a private talk with Harry and me? I'd like to hear what you think so far."

Hestia nodded, and glanced up. "Susan, Gabrielle. We're having a meeting - come on."

Harry glanced away from the screen as the red haired former Hufflepuff and Fleur's younger sister joined them, and Hestia then led them to another room, where long table had been set along with another crystal screen and console. "We're trying to set it up so that we can watch the holding cells from here," Hestia explained as they sat down. "Sad thing is; the Ancients weren't that big on actual pictures or cameras."

"Probably too advanced to need them," Kingsley mused, shrugging his shoulders and looking around the table. "So, ladies, what have you to say after your first day of work?"

The witches exchanged looks, and Hestia leaned back in her chair. "Where to start…?" she asked.

"How much work do you have around here?" Harry asked.

"Not much, at the moment," Hestia admitted. "Mostly we patrol around the unstable area to make sure that no one gets stranded - which will no longer be necessary thanks to the life signs screen. Then there is scouting, both here in Atlantis and in the mainland, but that isn't every day and even then we usually only help out the Learning Councillor's group. We monitor the Meditation Hall, of course, especially during the evenings when people loosen up. Aside from that, there isn't much we do."

"Well, we settle disputes when people have them, or try to anyway," Susan Bones said. "Plus we help people when they need it, but that's not often."

"So you more or less have everything you need to do your job?" Kingsley asked.

"More than enough, like I said. There are lot of volunteers - and not all of them fitting for the job," Hestia agreed. "But we're determined to do this thing, and do it well, so we're working out ways to improve efficiency. Like with the screen in the main hall."

Kingsley nodded. "What about if it becomes common to travel through the gate? The Learning Councillor is adamant that we need at least two skilled fighters in every team - and teams made solely of fighters that will come to the rescue of others if things go wrong. Have you thought of that?"

"We have, and many in the Corp have already volunteered," Hestia nodded. "We've decided that majority of our Aurors will be starting to take lessons at the Academy as soon as possible - also teaching, if they're needed. We want all our people as skilled as they can be. Especially if they're going off world."

Kingsley nodded with agreement. "That's good to hear, keep me updated on that," he said, before looking at the other Aurors. "Do you have anything you'd like to say?"

"Well, I think we need actual punishments," Susan Bones said with a slight scowl. "So far there hasn't been that much trouble, and the few people that have gotten unruly we could throw into a cell for a while. But it doesn't make that much of an impact in the long run."

"She's mad because Eddy Johnson keeps pawing her," Gabrielle explained with a wry grin.

"Well, you wouldn't like it either!" Susan harrumphed, throwing her long braid over her shoulder and folding her arms. At Harry's questioning look, she sighed. "Eddy is the older muggle brother of a first year witch. He's always drunk at the Six Broomsticks."

"Ah," Harry agreed, and shared a glance with Kingsley. "How about labour as punishment?" he asked. "You could put this Eddy working at the piers. Or send him to the main land to work with professor Sprout's teams."

"Pretty harsh for just being drunk and pawing a pretty girl," said Hestia Jones, who was in charge of the Order of the Phoenix member's among the security force. "It would work for some more severe crimes - like thievery and battery and such."

"So we're just gonna allow Eddy keep on pawing me and the others?" Susan asked with a frown. "I can see how it might've been sort of okay in the beginning, but I'm not just a volunteer now, I'm officially security personnel now, an Auror even if no one will really recognize it. I'm… I'm practically a captain! And he's done more with some others - he very nearly molested Hannah, would've if Neville hadn't been there."

"She's right," Kingsley said, leaning back in his chair. "It won't do allowing something like that to continue - I don't like the idea of Atlantis being a place where that type of thing is just allowed. And the main power of Aurors is the respect they command and if we can't have that, then there is no point in anything. I say Eddy goes to do some menial labour for a week, and we see how he likes pawing Aurors after that."

Susan sent him a bright smile.

Harry looked at the three Aurors considering, wondering what exactly was the problem with this Eddy. Back on Earth only the very stupid and borderline insane would've tries to cop a feel of an Auror, after all. Was it because, somehow, all their head Aurors had ended up being witches? No, that couldn't be it - there were still more than enough wizards and muggles too in the volunteers, he knew that. Frowning slightly, Harry awkwardly loosened the slightly stiff neckline of his robes, and then realised.

He now got _bows_ and _curtsies_ because he was wearing fancy robes. The Aurors of Atlantis on other hand…

"You know, I think part of the lack of respect is because of your clothes," Harry said, and immediately gained three harsh looks. "I don't mean you wear - I mean, you look _fine_, trust me, but you don't look like Aurors."

"He's right," Kingsley nodded, giving a thoughtful look at the robes the women were wearing. "It's not the face people remember about Aurors or police or military - it's the uniform. It's the uniform that draws attention - it's the uniform they respect."

"So, we need uniforms," Hestia said thoughtfully. "And that will make people respect us."

"Well, not at first of course, respect has to be earned and mere clothes won't get that, but it's a start," Harry said. "Several people wearing exactly the same thing displays unity - and commitment. That's a heady thing even if people don't know what that thing they're wearing means. And when you give it a meaning…" Harry had learned enough of psychology to know that at least.

"Not to mention that like this, they will just see you as people, some witches they can see at the corridor or in the Hall - they see _civilians_, pretty girls they can chat up," Kingsley agreed. "You're not civilians anymore."

"Hmm…" Hestia hummed, looking at the others. "There's a thought. Why didn't we think of that?"

"I did, but it didn't seem important - there's so few of us that we know each other by name, so… I thought there wouldn't be any point in uniforms," Susan said, frowning. "I never really thought about it like that, though."

"I suppose you have a uniform to design then, ladies," Kingsley said, sounding a little amused. "Make it something striking. It needs to command respect."

"Oh, and try and avoid the red of Earth Aurors," Harry added, wincing.

"Why?" the Ruling Councillor asked, sounding respect.

"Red is the colour of danger, Kingsley," the younger wizard answered with a flat look. "It's the colour of fire and blood and things which are poisonous - it's a basic human instinct to get away from red, be alarmed at the sight of it. We don't have that many bad guys here that we want out Aurors to become a symbol of fear - if I'm at all right, we want them to be the good guys," he snorted. "Not to mention that it's kind of tacky - and you can see it half a mile away."

"He's right about that," Hestia agreed. "What would you suggest?"

"Black," Gabriella said immediately, apparently picking on Harry's line of thought.

"Black would do," he nodded.

"It's the colour of Dark Arts," Kingsley answered with a frown. "Death Eaters wear black robes."

"As do Hogwarts students, and no one's ever accused Hogwarts of teaching Dark Arts - well, except for the last year. Black is a strong colour - authoritative and powerful. Dark wizard choose it for a reason - and dark wizard fashion is not it," Gabriella said calmly. "But maybe dark blue or dark grey would be better. They're pretty authoritative too."

"Hmm… What does green mean?" Susan asked curiously, looking over Harry's robes.

Harry grimaced as Gabriella took Harry in. "Well," she said. "It's a soothing and relaxing colour, represents healing and tranquil. Very well picked, perfect colour for a counsellor."

"Very well picked, she says," Kingsley grinned, nudging at Harry's side with his elbow. "Hear that, Harry? Perfect colour for a counsellor."

"Screw you," Harry grunted and shook his head. "Can we get back to business?"

"Yes sir, Master Corun Án, sir," Kingsley grinned, and Harry just barely managed to keep himself from kicking the man under the table.

Then he realised that he actually had no real reason to withhold himself, and kicked the man anyway.

x

The team off world called in, like planned, after an hour. Harry was there, along with Kingsley and McGonagall, to hear the first report. It was very strange to be speaking to a bird, Harry decided after the first few seconds of it, but it was also, oddly enough, kind of wicked.

"The planet is called Dagan," Elizabeth's voice came out a little chirpy through the Little Bird's beak. "As far as I can discern, it is on the level in which Earth was during the Renaissance. I have talked with some of the locals - they are very nice and helpful people, not at all hostile. Few of the traders also seem open for trading with people from other words, they seemed to even expect it - it seems to be common among the planets of Pegasus."

"That's good to hear. Anything on the… thing you're there to find?" Kingsley asked, tilting his head slightly to the side as he looked at the bird.

"I sketched a drawing of it to one of them, and they pointed me to a local scholar - it seems to be ancient relic of theirs, but I can't be sure before I have a talk with the man himself," Elizabeth answered, and the Little Bird tilted its head also, like mimicking the Ruling Councillor. Harry grinned, wondering if it was part of the Bird's mannerisms, or if Elizabeth was the one doing it. "Charlie and Jacob decided to scout around the village and see what they can find out, but I suspect that the ZPM might be hidden, or buried. There was talk of people having looked for it before with little success."

"I see," Kingsley mused, straightening his head. "Do you have anything else to report?"

"Well, ah. The fact that we're from Atlantis made bit of a splash - and the way Charlie and Alisa are dressed sort of made people assume things," she answered, the chirping sounding a bit embarrassed. "I believe they think we are the Ancients themselves - on Jacob's insistence, we didn't seek to correct their misguided conceptions."

"Why not?" McGonagall asked frowning.

"He says he has a _gut feeling_, but I think it's because he thinks it will give us some sort of advantage," Elizabeth answered, and she didn't sound like she approved. "In any case, they've already sent some people to a fetch their spokesperson so that they can talk to the spokesperson of Atlantis. They wish to establish relations, I think."

The three other Council members exchanged looks. "Not quite what we had in mind when we approved this mission," Kingsley mused after a moment.

"No, not quite," Elizabeth agreed. "But at this point, I would advise you to think about it. If I'm right, it'll take a bit longer and bit more than just looking around to find the ZPM and we don't want these people to kick us out."

Kingsley nodded with a dark look about his face. "How long until this… spokesperson arrives?"

"Couple of hours, maybe," Elizabeth answered through the Little Bird. "As things stand, I believe we could use an off world ally - if for nothing else, then for the information. We need to know more about Pegasus - even if we never use the gate again, we need to know where we are and how things stand in this galaxy," she said, as the Bird gave McGonagall a sideways look. "And I believe that trading with a society rather than separate persons would be much easier."

"We get it, Elizabeth, no need to try and convince us," Kingsley said, leaning back in his chair. "I suppose we need to find a spokesperson," he mused, glancing at McGonagall and Harry. "Any suggestions?"

Harry very nearly pointed out that Elizabeth was actual experienced and trained diplomat - before pursing his lips shut. Elizabeth was good, no doubt, but she was a muggle and still relatively new to magic and magical people. She still didn't quite understand what wizards did or did not need - she still sometimes thought that they should be doing what her Atlantis Expedition would've been doing. That gave her a biased agenda.

Harry almost groaned. Biased agenda. Dear Merlin, he was really turning into a politician.

"How about you, Harry?" Kingsley asked finally.

"How about me what?" Harry asked, coming out of his thoughts.

"Feeling like adding an _Ambassador_ to your line of titles?" Kingsley asked, lifting his hand when both Harry and McGonagall opened their mouths to argue. "Just hear me out. You know the in and out of Atlantis well enough, you know what we need, and you're good at reading people. You'd be able to tell if we're about to get screwed over."

Harry scowled. "I don't think that's all you need to be an ambassador," he objected. "Kingsley, I'm only eighteen - who the hell would take an eighteen year old ambassador seriously? And I know nothing about negotiating." He shook his head and gave the elder wizard a look. "Why not you?"

Kingsley smiled grimly. "I'm the Ruling Councillor, Harry," he said simply.

The younger wizard thought about it, and then grimaced. Yeah, it seemed kind of cowardly, but they couldn't send the leader of Atlantis out on the very first time they had an off world mission - or ever, in fact. Kingsley was a very casual and easy going as leaders went - sometimes it looked like he was doing nothing at all, except chatting with people. That was because he was good at what he did - in keeping order and peace and making sure that the city functioned smoothly, that its people did their jobs. Without him, the city wouldn't have gotten even nearly as far as fast as it had.

Harry didn't really know what to think about the fact that Kingsley had suggested he'd be the ambassador, though. As odd as it was, it made Harry feel a little… expendable.

"Elizabeth will be there to help you and I have no doubt you two would make a good team," Kingsley added.

"Yes, of course," Elizabeth quickly agreed through the Bird. "We can sit down with the spokesperson together."

Harry shook his head. "I still don't think I have the right qualifications," he said, turning to McGonagall. "Back me up on this, Professor."

She gave him a smile and shook her head. "I know why Kingsley suggested it, and he has a point. You have a way with people, Harry. In diplomatic situation, that could be invaluable," she said. "I still am against it, however. Advising Councillor and the counsellor of Atlantis - and of course the Corun Án - is too precious for us to risk you leaving the city and going off world at the top of the hat."

"Who then?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well, not _who_," McGonagall said, and now looked a little amused. "Where, is what I am thinking. Why not simply bring the spokesperson of Dagan to Atlantis?"

Harry blinked and Kingsley seemed to pause at the suggestion. Then the man smiled. "Why not indeed," he said, turning to the Bird. "Elizabeth, once the spokesperson arrives, keep them occupied for a while, and we'll see what we can do about this whole off world relations thing. I'll call you in, say, three hours to tell whether you will be escorting the spokesperson back here with you or not."

"Yes, sir," Elizabeth said slowly. "However, I would like to remind you that these people are under the impression that we are the Ancients, or Ancestors as they call them. If you invite the person to Atlantis…"

"Who's to say we aren't?" Kingsley asked, and from the gleam in his eyes Harry had no doubt that the man had a plot in his head - and, judging by the way Kingsley was looking at him, Harry had already been chosen to play a part in it.

x

"Well…" Hermione said slowly, looking between gleeful Kingsley and resigned Harry. "It hasn't actually been anywhere near the top priorities, but I have done some digging in the Atlantis data base about it."

"And?" Kingsley asked, leaning forward. "What have you came up with?"

Hermione looked at him seriously for a moment before folding her hands. "There are… similarities," he started. "According to Elizabeth, it was discovered by muggles are startlingly similar, to the point where humanity could be called the second evolution of this humanoid form. We have the same physical structure inside and out - aside from the minute details that made the Ancients superior to humans - and we share some of the same genes. So, in that sense, every human is the descendant of the Ancients."

"I need more than that. Tell me you found more," Kingsley demanded like kid asking for another candy, while Harry ran his hand over his face and wondered why had he ever consented to becoming a Councillor. He could've just been a counsellor and maybe the Corun Án, and that would've been fine. But no, he had to become the Advising Councillor.

Hermione shook her head, sighing. "Of course I found more. In the last stages of their evolution - which lasted for some millions of years, so it's nothing to sneer at - the Ancient developed certain abilities. Ability to move things with their mind, to heal people, to read their minds, to see into distant places - sometimes into the future."

"So, they had magic," Kingsley grinned. "And following that, wizards are direct descendants, they have to be."

"Well, not necessarily. It's true that we are… closer to Ancients than muggles are. The gene for operating Ancient technology is rare among muggles, but every witch and wizard has it," Hermione said. "But their psychic talents and our magic are two vastly different things."

"How's that?" Harry asked, curious despite himself. "I mean, we can do pretty much the same things they could, except I think we might be bit better at it."

"We're vastly better at it," Hermione agreed. "We can do with spells the Ancients probably could only do after their Ascension, that's no secret. But it's a complete different thing. We need spells and wands to move things, to heal people, to read their minds. Sure, a talented wizard might learn to do it silently and wordlessly, but it's still _magic_ while whatever the ancients had is the result of physical evolution."

"It's not the same thing? Isn't magic result of evolution too?" Kingsley asked.

"No, it isn't, not as such," she disagreed. "I am still not hundred percent sure of it, but I don't think we really _have_ magic as much as we have the ability to _connect_ to it." She looked between them and, after seeing that neither of the two Councillors got it, she sighed. "Never mind, it's just a theory anyway."

"So, we're no more related to the Ancients than your normal Muggles of the Pegasus galaxy?" the Ruling Councillor asked disappointedly.

"No, I think we are," Hermione said. "Like I said, we all have the gene, that if nothing else points to close relation. But while normal humans, or muggles, have the potential to evolve into Ancients - or to similar level of evolution - Wizards will go a different way. I think, actually, that Wizards and Muggles are rather like sibling races, both with their roots in the race of Ancients, but both going different directions."

Kingsley considered it for a moment while Harry frowned. "What about people like Muggleborns? Or Squibs?" he asked. "How does that factor into the whole sibling races theory?"

"Crossbreeding," Hermione shrugged. "Recessive genes. My parents probably both carried the genes of wizards, as did your grandparents from your mother's side. And Squibs are technically still wizards, but with some sort of born damage that makes them unable to use magic."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, while Kingsley frowned. "I need more than that," he said. "I need a stronger connection to the Ancients. Something that will justify our being here perfectly."

"What?" Hermione asked, surprised.

"Politics," Harry answered. "We're going to have a diplomat from Dagan coming over, and Kingsley wants them to see us as rightful occupants of Atlantis, rather than the interlopers we are."

Hermione blinked at them, and then shook her head. "You people work fast," she muttered and folded her arms. "I don't know what to say, really, or what would help. All I have is theories and possibilities, nothing really concrete - we have been too busy with other projects to really look into the whole thing. Wizards _are_ related to the Ancients, maybe even engineered by them, but that won't be much help -"

"Engineered?" Kingsley and Harry asked together.

The witch started a little and then shrugged her shoulders. "Well, think about it. Wizarding history starts almost immediately after the Ancients fled Pegasus galaxy and went to earth - and our earliest history revolves around Ancient Greece and Rome, which is there Elizabeth says the surviving Ancients mostly lived out their lives. We still have our spells mostly in Latin, and just about all our healing spells are in ancient Greek. It can't be just a coincidence. Not to mention about the fact that someone left a Stargate under Hogwarts - with the instructions on how to find Atlantis."

"There is that," Kingsley nodded slowly. "How goes the complete theory?"

Hermione hesitated for a moment. "When Elizabeth travelled back in time, she accidentally started a chain of events. She let the ancients know about their future and the future of their city. It affected at least some of them, no doubt - I know it would've affected me if I had been in their shoes. So, maybe one of them took her warnings into heart and decided to…"

"To design a race of magical humans?" Harry asked a little disbelievingly.

"For the lack of better way of putting it, yes," Hermione agreed. "Think about the situation they were in. They had just lost the galaxy to the Wraith - an enemy that had some of the same psychic abilities the ancients had. And seeing Elizabeth, who is a wonderful woman but no where near the level of Ancients neither in terms of intelligence or power, and hearing her story of Atlantis's destruction… it couldn't have exactly made them feel confident about the future of Atlantis. So, maybe some Ancient scientist decided that the future generations ought to be better prepared."

She held out her hand to stop Kingsley from speaking. "And finally there is Prometheus," she said almost triumphantly.

"Prometheus?" Harry asked with confusion.

"Yes. I've been looking into the Ancients who went to Earth and what mythologies they might've started. Like with the man Elizabeth met, the scientist Janus, who in ancient Rome became known as the god of transition and beginnings, doorways and time, which all ties to his actual expertise," Hermione nodded. "In muggle mythology Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to humans. In wizard mythology, he gave magic to men instead of fire," she explained, her eyes sparkling with the enthusiasm she always got to her eyes when discovering new things, new spells or new truths. "And in Ancient database it says that Prometheus was one of their leading scientists on mechanics of Ascension not to mention that he was a brilliant geneticist - and among those who had fled the city and moved to Earth."

"That's a bit of a leap," Kingsley mused, sounding almost admiring. Harry had to agree.

"And it has next to nothing to back it up, yeah, I know," Hermione said, shrugging her shoulders. "But in a way it makes sense, doesn't it?"

The Ruling Councillor smiled. "It does," he said. "It definitely does. Come along Harry, we have a meeting to get ready for!"

"What's going on?" Hermione asked under her breath as Kingsley headed off, heaving her and Harry behind. "I thought Elizabeth's team was just supposed to go to the planet, see if they can find a ZPM, and come back. What is this about?"

"It's complicated," Harry sighed and motioned her to follow. "Come on. Kingsley is scheming something, and I have a feeling I'm going to need some help to keep up with him."

x

"This is the moment when we have to decide," Kingsley said, looking over between the gathered Council members - except for Elizabeth who was still at Dagan. There were few others present in the chamber - Ronan was there with Entau, Neville had came in as Sprout's assistant, Hermione was there as well as master Magee, McGonagall had Pomfrey accompanying her, and Annie had brought George with her. Everyone there seemed to know it was an important decision to make.

Perhaps one of the more important ones they had made in Atlantis.

"We already know we aren't alone in the galaxy, we know there are people out there, humans. We also know that there are potential threats out there - the Wraith that defeated the Ancients might still be around, who knows," Kingsley continued. "Elizabeth is right; we can't bury our heads in the sand. We can't act as thought we're separate when the galaxy is so well connected through the Stargates. We've made the first, tentative contact by sending Elizabeth and the others to Dagan in search of the ZPM, but this is just the first step in what I think will be a long and hard road."

"I thought we were just going to try and get the power source, move the city and be done with it," Neville said, looking a bit confused. "When did this become an issue about relations with other worlds?"

"When we realised that there were humans around - and that they might be interested about us," Harry said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Moving Atlantis is still the priority, of course - we want the access to the mainland as soon as possible. But if we're to proceed with the people of Dagan - and we must proceed with them if we want their permission to look for the ZPM - we need to make a decision," Kingsley said. "On how solitary we wish to be in this galaxy."

"Solitary? What do you mean by that, Ruling Councillor?" Entau asked, folding her arms and looking curious.

"Yes. Do we keep everything to yourselves, never letting anyone else in this galaxy see us, visit us, know us… or do we want to make friends," Kingsley made a haphazard motion towards the window behind him. "It's a big galaxy out there, and there are only so many of us. We can survive by ourselves for now, and even better if we get the ZPM and manage to move the city like planned, but after that…"

There was a short silence, before Annie Hall coughed. "I for one would love to see some trading," she said, and looked around the group. "We have materials, sure, and we can recycle… but it's not the same as getting high quality ore or certain types of pelts, or ready-made yarn or cloth - or whatever else we might need. And if the off world exploration will become common, we need material for the necessary equipment - and having production time cut by having someone else make the base materials would be pretty nice."

"We'd need to trade for food as well," Sprout agreed, while Neville nodded behind her. "We can grow, of course, but… well, as far as meat goes, we don't have that many options. Having some livestock would be nice - cows if nothing else. We've already ran out of milk if I'm right, and lack of dairy products won't be just mildly irritating, it will be also somewhat unhealthy."

"I can attest to that," Madam Pomfrey agreed. "And I think I speak for Professor Slughorn when I say that we need potions ingredients. If there is any chance we might find at least some of them out there, in other worlds… it would be worth the risk."

"How are our potions stocks?" McGonagall asked.

"Holding, but if there were to be specific illnesses, or bad accident…" Pomfrey shook her head. "A city wide infection is bound to happen at some point, people get bugs all the time after all and they tend spread. As we are we're poorly prepared for that."

"So, we're all agreed that we could use the trade if nothing else," Kingsley asked. "What else?"

"We could use more people," Madam Pomfrey said, and coughed softly as everyone turned to look at her. "Well, to get to the gruesome point… there isn't enough humans in this city to support a society for long," she explained. "We will have some good and healthy generations, and then…" The matron shook her head sadly. "As it is, the centaurs will most likely not see more than two, maybe three new generations before they will begin in-breeding. If even that."

Entau nodded with Ronan let out a morose sigh. "It is true, there aren't enough of us for our bloodlines to flow on," Entau said. "But we do not fear. Centaur lifespan is much longer than that of human's - it will not become issue for hundreds of years. And by that time, other options might be available."

Pomfrey nodded. "It is a bit too early to be thinking about that anyway, but the fact remains," she said

"So, what, we start bringing some random people into Atlantis, just like that?" George asked, frowning.

"Of course not just like that," Kingsley said, standing up and turning to look out of the window. There was a peculiar look on his face as he peered down to the city, one Harry didn't need any help deciphering. Atlantis was huge, meant for millions of people - and they only occupied tiny little crooks and corners of it with their small population.

"In the case we decide to continue on this… diplomatic venture, how will we proceed?" McGonagall asked, folding her arms and looking forbidding. No one in the room missed the fact that she knew probably exactly what Kingsley had in mind.

Kingsley glanced at her and the rest of them over his shoulder before coming back to the table. "First and foremost, no matter what happens, we must keep control of Atlantis," he said, sitting down and looking suddenly grim. "Atlantis is a magnificent and incredible city and I have no doubt that some other people might like the idea of having it for themselves. If there are as many people out there as the Learning Councillor thinks there are, if there are as many possible allies and possible threats… we need to be ready for any attempts of claiming the city they might make."

"You really think there might be the danger of someone trying to take Atlantis away from us?" Harry asked, surprised. Kingsley hadn't mentioned that before.

"I can't ignore the possibility," Kingsley answered. "And I must admit; it's been in my mind ever since Elizabeth told me about this Atlantis Expedition of hers."

Harry scowled, as the reason why they were having this meeting while Elizabeth was still on Dagan - and why they hadn't even called her through the gate with the Little Bird - made sense.

Behind him, Hermione let out a strangled sound. "You fear that when the time of the Earth expedition comes, they want the city for themselves?" she asked with disbelief. "That they'd try to take it by force?"

"I don't know about force, but the Expedition does have military element. And that was their original plan, wasn't it? Turn Atlantis into their base of operations and claim all the Ancient technology for themselves. I have no doubt that many others would have similar idea, after seeing the city - or even hearing about it," Kingsley said calmly.

"I suppose that would support the notion of keeping to our selves," McGonagall noted thoughtfully.

"Or making our claim here and now," Kingsley answered, and looked around the table. "Be honest, people. Would you want to leave Atlantis? Even if you could return to Earth, back to your lives before the war, would you really want to?" Silence followed the words, and Kingsley smiled. "I thought not. Atlantis has become home. And I for one won't to budge."

"So, finder's keepers?" George asked, rubbing his chin and looking calculating.

Kingsley shook his head and grinned. "I'm thinking more along the lines of inheritance," he said, leaning back in his chair. "Hermione, that theory of yours…"

The brown haired with blanched. "It is a mere theory, Ruling Councillor, not a fact and not evidence," she said quickly. "There is a very big chance that it might be no where near the truth - it most likely isn't!"

Kingsley smiled somewhat sternly, if that was possible. "If you could kindly share your theory of the engineering with the council?" he asked, in tone that offered no chance for objections.

Hermione did, looking shocked and stuttering through the explanation of her theory. Once she was done, she looked like she had made a deal with the devil - and Harry couldn't really blame her. Hermione was a stout supporter of the truth and fact, after all - and to have a mere theory of hers bent into twists to serve the Council's purpose… It made Harry feel a bit queasy.

"Keeping this story mind, it could even be said that Atlantis was left behind just so that we would one day find it," the Ruling Councillor said. "That we are the descendants of the Ancients, and thus the rightful owners of the city."

There was a moment of quiet before George broke it. "Well," he said, sounding almost impressed. "Well, well, well. Your position finally caught up with you, didn't it, Kingsley?"

"We can't just _lie_ to the people we meet," Hermione said with a frown.

"I think we can lie, we can probably do it pretty well," Annie Hall said calmly. "And if a little lie will keep people from trying to upstage us, I say we do it. But what about what about the Centaurs? We can't exactly say that they're descendants of the Ancients too, now can we?"

"Friends of ours, allies whom we have taken in and who now share Atlantis with us," Kingsley said, looking towards Entau and Ronan. "Now far from the truth, isn't it?"

"It is indeed not," Entau nodded, bowing her head a little.

"Wait, wait, wait," Hermione snapped, still looking at Annie. "You'd condone to this sort of deceit?"

"Sure, why not?" the Trading Councillor answered. "It's not that different from what we're doing on earth, now is it? Except there we're having the majority of the population think we don't even exist. Saying that we descent from the original builders of this city - which we probably do, one way or another - isn't that big of a lie anyway. And it's probably easier to say that we inherited our magic from our Ancient ancestors than trying to explain it."

"When you put it like that, it kind of makes sense," George mused. "Unless of course we want to keep our magic as a secret."

"Considering how much we need to use it, I think that would be a bit foolish," master Magee said. "It would make powering the Spellstones difficult."

"Keeping magic as a secret at this point wouldn't probably make much a difference. We have whole planet to ourselves and everyone here knows, so trying to hide would be pretty pointless," Kingsley mused. "And if we get visitors, we have to take into consideration how many children we have around here - some of whom have no way of controlling their powers yet…" he trailed away and shrugged his shoulders. "Not that we have to go out and advertise it out to the galaxy, of course."

"It will be so odd, not hiding it all," Magee murmured. "But to do all the things you couldn't do on Earth - to actually use magic to help muggles… that would be wonderful."

"And dangerous - you never know how muggles would react to something like that," McGonagall said, frowning. "Don't forget the witch burnings."

"The witch burnings were in the past, in a different planet - different _galaxy_ for Merlin's sake - with different beliefs. It is not the general way muggles are," Hermione said with a frown of her own. "We can't base our theories and estimations of future on past that most likely has never happened elsewhere. Muggles aren't religious fanatics by definition."

"And as far as we know, or as far as Elizabeth knows, the powers of the ancients weren't exactly a secret - and I kind of doubt anyone chased them with pitchforks," Magee noted.

"They had technology on their side," McGonagall shook her head. "Not to mention about the fact that they were a completely different race in comparison to everyone else."

Magee hummed. "We have that same technology, don't we? And aren't we, in a way, different race?"

"Exactly," Kingsley cut in before the argument could evolve into a fight, making Harry almost sigh with relief. "Aren't we a different race, in manner of speaking?" he looked around the table. "Are we?"

There was a moment of silence as the Council members and their aides thought it over. Harry already had a feeing what they would decide, though what that would mean in the long run was a different thing. Building a society on lies wasn't in his opinion safe or healthy.

"I think that claiming ourselves one true descendant race of the Ancient would only get us in trouble in the long run," Sprout finally spoke, bringing everyone's attention to her. "It might come back to haunt us in the end. I think… I think the best way to go would be to tell the truth."

"The truth?" Kingsley asked, frowning.

"The truth," the Farming Councillor nodded. "We come from the world where Ancient went after they lost the war. We found the gate from where it was practically left waiting for us - with the directions of how to use it to dial Atlantis. We all can naturally operate Ancient technology…" she trailed away, looking at the others. "The implications are there."

"And people will draw conclusions," Entau agreed, looking thoughtful. "Often without any need for lies."

"People are good at that," Ronan mused, sighing.

"Oh, that's much better," Hermione said, relaxing a little. "I don't approve any of this, mind you, but I'd much rather do that, than pretend to be something I'm probably not."

"I think everyone would," Neville, who had been scowling too much to speak, muttered.

Harry nodded slowly. "And if we start lying about who and what we are now for the sake of security, who knows how far that will go? What will we start lying about next?" he asked, looking at Kingsley. "If we are going to live here for the rest of our lives and if our children will take over for us after we're done, do we really want them to have that sort of legacy?"

Kingsley drummed the surface of the table with his fingers and looked at the others. "Implications, huh?" he asked, apparently sensing what Harry too did. The council, excluding Elizabeth of course, had made its mind. "It can't be as secure as a full, immediate claim - people can dispute implications."

"And people can defend them," Neville said, with a little frown. "I don't think anyone here would give Atlantis up willingly, after all the work we've put into her. There might not be that many of us, but we're not exactly helpless, are we?"

"And sometimes humility can do what arrogance cannot," Ronan said, his front hoof clicking absently against the metal floor.

Kingsley looked from one Councillor to another before sighing, and apparently conceding a defeat. "Very well, let's vote on it," he said, and all in the room sat or stood a little straighter at the words. "Those in favour of claiming Atlantis as our inherited right as the descendant of the Ancients, raise your hands… And those in favour of implying it with the truth?"

Harry closed his eyes once the votes were in, savouring the feeling. For some reason he felt that a much more important decision had been made than the one they had actually voted on, when the council had decided that they would not lie to secure themselves.

x

Harry was just getting ready for the meeting with the Dagan spokesperson, trying to figure out what to say and what to do - which wasn't exactly a easy task as he had no idea how to be diplomatic - when Luna seemed to appear out of nowhere to his side. If Harry hadn't gotten adjusted to it - not with her, but Kreacher had the tendency of taking him off guard - he probably would've started and scattered his notes all across the room.

"Merlin, Luna! Don't appear out of nowhere like that, geez!" he exclained, clutching to the notes as he looked at her. She didn't look particularly apologetic, not even when Evvie hissed at her from the top of Harry's hat. "Any particular reason as to why you're trying to kill me by a heart attack?"

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," the blonde girl smiled serenely, while winding her hands around his upper arm. "I would like to show you something, later, when you have the time, but before that I would like to offer my congratulations, Ambassador."

"Screw you too," Harry sighed, but relaxed a little. Luna being all mysterious and omnipotent had that effect on him. "Do you have something to offer, any suggestions, advices…?" he asked hopefully. "Undeniable proof of how bad idea putting me into the spot is?"

"It is," Luna agreed, leaning her chin to his shoulder. "You are detachedly attached now, and don't see the forest for the trees - or the trees for the forest. You look in between so much, that in between will soon be all you see - and it is good, for a neutral councillor and a counsellor… but an Ambassador requires agendas you cannot permit yourself to have."

"So, I'm bad for the job," Harry said, both relieved and bit dismayed. "That's cutting it a little close, but I think we can find me a replacement. Do you have anyone in mind?"

Luna smiled. "You had Ron visit me," she said, her tone strange mixture of teasing and accusation.

"Erm," Harry stopped, staring at her with wide eyes. Someone might've thought she had just changed the subject, but he had learned to decipher Luna speak a little better than that, and could hear the suggestion. "I'm no psychic but even I can tell what a bad idea _that_ is," he said slowly. What was with everyone and seeking revenge on him all of sudden? First Kreacher and the blasted robes, and now Luna of all people! "Sure, I did suggest that he'd visit you, but if this is your way of showing gratitude -"

"He sees the trees," Luna interrupted. "And not just inside the trees, but around them."

The wizard paused at that, trying to untangle the words in his head. Ron had been working in the base level of Atlantis since the beginning, he mused. Working with the food-hand out, in setting up with the kitchen, doing some simple work around the Meditation Hall and under Master Magee - and now he was what majority of the unhappy part of Atlantis's people was, unemployed and uncertain of what to do. And he had probably gone from place to place, looking for a place to fit in… "I see," he murmured, as the thought behind the suggestion started making some sense.

"Take Hermione too. She sees the forest," the scatter brained witch added, patting Harry's shoulder almost compassionately. "In that the three of you have always been balanced."

"I suppose," Harry said slowly, trying not to feel sudden, odd elation. Instead he shook his head, and looked down to her. "What is it that you wanted to show me?" he asked.

The witch's smile widened, as she released him. "A song - but it can wait. Make good of this, Harry," she added, now serious. "There is more at stake, than the relations of a single planet."

"I know. I think everyone does - it's making the Council a bit giddy," Harry said, looking up and down at her. "I need to go find Ron. Was there anything else you wanted to say, any other advice? I'm on bit of a schedule here."

Luna glanced at his chest and grinned. "Borrow him one of your nice new robes," she said, and Disapparated before Harry could snort a reply.

"One day I'm going to turn on you all and blow this whole city up, mark my words," Harry grumbled, and stomped off to find his best mate.

He found Ron from the Weasley's apartment, helping his mother repair a broken table. The both of the greeted him with smiles and welcomes, though there was the usual hollow look in Mrs. Weasley's eyes, which had been there for months now, ever since Fred had died. Ron on other hand had slightly awkward slouch about him, and he seemed more than happy to leave the repairing when Harry asked if he could have a moment.

"You boys talk, I will get some tea on," Mrs. Weasley immediately offered, wiping the wood splinters from her hands. "It'll just take a tick."

"No, it's okay, Mrs. Weasley, I need to be in the control tower in, uh, ten minutes or so," Harry answered, glancing at his pocket watch. "Maybe later," he added at her look of disappointment.

"Well, alright then," she said, sighing. "I do wish you visited more often, Harry dear. It feels like we never get to see you these days."

"I've been busy - but I'll try to make the time, I promise," Harry said, before nodding at Ron who led him out of the living room and into what was apparently his own bedroom. It was nothing like his bedroom at the burrow had been - this room was large and brightly lit with automatic door leading to a balcony, and walls which were mostly bare. He still had somehow managed to get few Cannons posters to the city, much to Harry's amusement and surprise.

"Yeah, I know," Ron said with faint embarrassment while picking some dirty laundry from the floor, casting somewhat awkward sideways glances at Harry. The councillor didn't need more than to see the look in his eyes to see that the formal robes Harry was wearing were intimidating his friend a little. "Not much point rooting for the cannons when we're in different galaxy and all, but they make it actually feel like home."

"I like it. I wish I had some posters to put up - I got some paintings, but I'm not exactly willing to share my house with the members of the Black Family," Harry mused while pushing aside some of the clutter on Ron's bed and sitting down.

"So, what can I do for you?" Ron asked, after a moment of uneasy silence. "With so much stuff going on, I bet you're not here just for a social visit."

"Ah, no. Not really," Harry answered, rubbing his neck. "I had a talk with Luna - or well, she had a talk with me, in manner of speaking."

"Yeah, I talked with her too yesterday," Ron agreed, looking a bit bewildered as he sat beside Harry. "It was weird, mate. She told me, uh… what was it? That Atlantis has enough giants and that we need few people - and that I should… be a person," the redhead trailed away, shaking his head. "I have no idea what she meant."

"I think I do," Harry answered with a wry grin. "She told me I can't see the forest for the trees - or the trees for the forest - because I'm detachedly attached."

"That makes no sense," the other wizard said after a moment of thought.

"It does, kind of," the Advising Councillor said, laughing. "I suppose another way of putting it would be to say that my perspective has gotten all wonky. Probably side effect of what I do now - I'll have to watch out for it in the future. That's not why I'm here for, though," he added, looking up to his friend. "I'm actually here to see if you'd like to help me with something."

"Like what?"

"You know about the Dagan negotiations?"

"Um," Ron murmured and frowned. "Lee said something about that on the radio - isn't there some ambassador or something coming to Atlantis from the world Charlie's team went?"

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "It's probably just first step in establishing diplomatic relations between us and them, but first step is the most important one. Anyway, the Council decided to make me and Elizabeth work it out - though of course, if and when the spokesperson arrives, he will meet with the rest of the council. Anyway, Elizabeth and I will be sitting on the table with the guy - and I'd like to have you with me."

"What - me?" Ron asked with disbelief. "In diplomatic negotiations, bloody hell, Harry, even _I_ know I'm not cut out for that sort of stuff! You should ask Hermione or someone instead."

"I am going to ask Hermione, and I have no doubt that she'll agree to help," Harry agreed, shrugging his shoulders. "But I want you too because you can do what I apparently no longer can."

"And what is that?" the redhead asked, looking curious despite himself

"You can see the trees," the black haired wizard answered.

Ron stared at him for a moment, thinking about it. "I have no idea what that means," he said finally.

"Me neither, but I've learned to trust Luna's little implications. I have no idea what she sees, the forest or the trees, but she still seems to get it always right," Harry laughed, shaking his head. "The bottom line is that you know how our food system works, right? You've been working with that since beginning. What else have you been doing?"

"Well, this and that. I was helping Madam Rosmerta for a while, but that didn't work out. I helped George and Lee too with their shop and invention stuff, but I wasn't really that much use, to be honest. There's the farming stuff too, but everyone's doing that…" the redhead frowned. "Then there's the Quidditch thing with the Woods, I've been working on that too. Oh, I've visited the mainland pretty often though. Madam Hooch is trying make the fliers of the Vacuumers into a sort of… group, kind of like what's done with the Aurors, but not really - I've been helping her a bit with that… mostly I've been running after dad, and he's mostly been working Atlantis's systems - he's disturbingly interested in the water filtration right now."

Harry gave him a slightly envious look. He didn't get the chance to fly the ships as much as he would've liked - he was way too busy for that. And he hadn't even touched a broom in months. Not to mention about all the other stuff Ron had gotten to do - Harry hadn't even realised that the water was filtered, though obviously it had to be. "Mate, I envy you," he said, gaining a baffled look in return. He shook his head and smiled. "Trust me, mate, you're exactly what I need in the meeting. Please come."

Ron shook his head. "Believe me, I'll end up messing it up, but if you really want me there, sure," he said. "On one condition."

"Conditions, of course. What is it?" Harry asked, sighing. Everyone had conditions

"You talk with Mum," the redhead said simply.

Harry frowned, thinking back to the hollow look on Mrs. Weasley's eyes. "I will. Soon," he promised and stood up. "It'll have to wait a day or so, though," he added. "Because right now, we have a meeting - and in five minutes, we're gonna be late."

"Wait, wait, wait, _five minutes_? But, but, I'm - I'm not even -" Ron started, pointing down at himself. "I mean, _look at you_ and me, in this stupid jumper -"

"Yes, that's why we're going to pop into my place and you can have one of my robes - they all will be properly horrid now, no doubt. Come on."

x

Harry didn't think he was seething too much when he entered the gate room - but he probably was, judging by the way people glanced at him an hurriedly scurried out of his and Ron's way. Madam Malkin had apparently finished with majority of his robes - and, regardless of what Kreacher had said, they hadn't all been actually fancy. Fancier than what he had worn before and with whole lot more embroidery than he was adjusted to - but they were actually _normal_. Unlike the robe he had been forced to wear in the morning which, apparently, was more of the ball-robe style in comparison.

So, Ron had been easily able to select nice looking dark brown robes which, while looking good, didn't make him look like a Malfoy-wanna-be. Harry on other had hadn't had the time to change - getting out of the fancy green robes would've taken more time than they had.

"You know, if you keep saying you will kill someone and you never do, no one's going to take you seriously when you _actually_ intend to kill someone," Ron said amusedly, while following him into the gate room.

"Oh, shut it," Harry just growled back, while Evvie flickered about him, buzzing as he went. Huffing out an irritated breath, he straightened his back and looked ahead, seeing Kingsley already waiting near the gate - just outside the low-threat shield. "Ruling Councillor," Harry greeted them and glanced around. Aside from Kingsley, the usual team watching the control room and couple of Aurors for extra security, the room was fairly empty. "Hermione is not here yet?"

"She's setting the conference room with Annie," Kingsley answered, tugging slightly at the front of his robes. "Nervous?" he asked.

"Can barely stand to stay still," Harry answered with a snort.

"Um, Harry? Maybe I should go with Hermione, to see if she needs help - you don't need me here, right?" Ron asked, nodding towards the stairs leading up from the lower level of the gate room.

"So as long as you don't turn tail and run," Harry answered and shook his head as Ron nodded and then made a beeline for the stairs, apparently wanting nothing to do with the first diplomatic contact Atlantis made

"Do we know what to expect yet?" Harry asked, smoothing a hand over the hem of his robes and then standing straight, knowing that despite all the fuss he put up, appearances did have some importance in matters like this - as proven by the case of the Aurors in casual clothing.

"Alice did call ahead. The spokesperson, names Gariye, will be arriving with two assistant, Dneat who will be doing the scribing for him, and Ashna, who is Gariye's personal servant, I believe," Kingsley muttered and glanced at Evvie, who had taken his usual place atop Harry's head. "Do you think it's wise bringing him?"

"Evvie? Well, I could try to keep him away but he's become a bit wilful - one moment he won't budge, the other he's gone and I have no idea where he is," Harry admitted. "And he's gotten good at finding me. If I left him somewhere, I bet he'd find me again, if he wanted to, even if it was in closed room. Fairies are very good at getting into closed rooms."

"Hm. Well, let's hope he won't startle our guest too much," Kingsley murmured, pulling out a wand and then taking a napkin from his pocket. With few flicks, he transformed the napkin into a miniature toga, and with another flick he sent Evvie hurriedly off Harry's head - and as the fairy flickered about in astonishment, Harry saw that he was now wearing the napkin toga on him.

Kingsley smiled sheepishly. "Little bit of skills I picked up in my more… wastefully spent earlier years. There was a girl who liked to make clothing for dolls, and… well," he coughed and hid his wand again. "We are part of the Council and as such we should conform to some form of propriety. Us and our pets."

"Clothing for dolls, Kingsley?" Harry asked, amused while snatching his fairy from the air and running tip of his forefinger soothingly over Evvie's hair. After getting over his alarm of suddenly wearing clothing, the fairy cooed softly with fascination, tugging at the odd toga thoughtfully. "What a shocking side of you. You need to teach me how to do it too - I've been wondering where to get something for Evvie to wear."

"Maybe later - though I bet there are lot of magical mothers out there in Atlantis who know a bit more than I do," the Ruling Councillor said, and then looked ahead as the Stargate let out a sharp sound and from the upper level of the gate room, one of the watchers called out that they had a off-world activation coming.

"Off-world activation," Kingsley mused and sighed. "All my life I thought I lived in a fantasy novel, only to have it turn into science fiction."

"Fantasy, science fiction, political treatise… what's the difference, really?" Harry answered with a grin while urging Evvie into his pocket. Then he put up a straight face, as the symbols dashed around the gate's circle, first one, then another, until eventually the seventh symbol was locked. The low-threat shield came up automatically, as it was meant to, as the star gate erupted in geyser of brilliant blue and then collapsed into the smooth pond surface that Harry still couldn't quite believe _wasn't_ magical.

There was a moment of quiet before Hermione's voice came from the second level. "Elizabeth just sent a message through the Little Bird," she called down to them. "Spokesperson Gariye is coming through."

"Thank you Hermione," Kingsley nodded and then he and Harry kept their eyes on the gate as, just few seconds later, the surface was broken by Elizabeth, then by unknown elderly man, another slightly younger man, and a young woman, all wearing old fashioned clothing.

"Oh, good heavens. Ancestors be praised, this is… this is magnificent," the old man gasped, his hand coming to the chest of his somewhat fancy coat as he looked around in the gate room. He was probably the spokesperson, Harry mused while glancing over his clothing which were much fancier than what the other two were wearing.

"I must admit, before this I did not quite believe. The city of the Ancestors - oh, for all our old myths and legends, I did not quite believe it was real, or still so intact!" Spokesperson Gariye said, and then smiled winningly first at Elizabeth and then turning to his attention to Harry and Kingsley. "Oh, pardon my lapse in manners. I am Elder Fery Gariye, at your service. I speak for the upper Ealdon county of Dagan," he said, bowing his head. "It is very much my most considerable honour to be here today."

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Elder Gariye. I am Kingsley Shackebolt, the Ruling Councillor of Atlantis," Kingsley answered and then nodded at Harry. "And this is Harry Potter, the Corun Án and the Advising Councillor of Atlantis."

"It is a Very nice to meet you," Harry nodded as well and then, after cursory glance over the spokesperson's companions, he turned to look up to the second level, where Hermione was watching. He gave her a nod and with answering nod she withdrew to the back and towards the control centre. Soon after, the low threat shield was brought down with shimmer of green.

"Please," Kingsley said, motioning towards the stairs. "Come this way, and I will show you where we will be performing our negotiations. We have also set up some refreshments in case you are tired of your journey."

"Oh, that is most kind of you, thank you. Before that, however - a small matter of Dagan courtesy…" the elder turned to look at the woman behind him, and took a bundle of clothing she had been carrying. The woman, who had been staring at the near by Spellstone with wide eyes, nearly jumped as the bundle was taken, but hid her lapse in manners well.

Gariye smiled and held out the bundle. "Here," he said, handing the cloth bundle to Kingsley. "Please accept this on the behalf of the county of upper Ealdon. Though we have shaken our childish believes and fantastical superstitions, we still have much respect for our Ancestors - both those who have passed, and those who still remain."

"Oh. Thank you, that is… most kind," Kingsley answered, and accepted the gift. He gave it a slightly perplexed look, making the elder man laugh and take it back so that he could unwrap the protective layer of cloth to reveal the rolled up tapestry. "Oh!" Kingsley said again, as the tapestry was unrolled to reveal a carefully woven scene of fields and houses and clouds above them. "This is very nice," the Ruling Councillor said with honest admiration.

"We hoped you would think so," Gariye said with obvious satisfaction.

"Very nice indeed," Kingsley murmured and smiled at the old man. "I will gratefully accept this on behalf of the people of Atlantis. Now, please. Let us go to the conference room. This way."

"Would it be alright if my scribe and servant joined us?" Gariye asked. "My hands shake too much for writing these days and I admit I'd be lost without Ashna."

"Of course, by all means."

Kingsley turned and led the elder with his two companions up the stairs and left, towards the meeting room. As they went - with the two Aurors following closely behind, Harry shared a look with Elizabeth. "Who knew Kingsley had it in him?" he whispered to her, raising his eyebrows. She agreed with a smile, and after a shared grin, Harry regained his composure. "How did it go otherwise? Any news of the ZPM?"

"None as of yet, but I believe Charlie wants his brother Bill to join us in Dagan - something about treasure hunts being right up his alley," Elizabeth answered, and then nodded ahead. "We should probably join them, but before we do… could you spell me clean, Harry? It is warmer in Dagan than I thought it would be, and I'm all sweaty."

Chuckling, Harry pulled his wand and cast a cleaning charm on her. As she relaxed slightly, giving him a grateful nod, he put the wand away and together they hurried after the Ruling Councillor and their guests.

Annie and Hermione had indeed set the conference room, and very nicely too, Harry found as they entered. The table, previously somewhat forbidding in it's strictness, had been covered with a table cloth, and aside from bowls of snacks and some pitchers, there were some smaller Spellstones standing in the middle of the table, spinning absently and looking very much like your usual decorations instead of the power sources they really were.

"Elder Gariye, allow me to introduce you to our Trading Councillor, Annie Hall," Kingsley said, while Hermione and Ron stood waiting by the table. "Trading Councillor, this is Elder Fery Gariye of Dagan."

"It is very good to meet you," Annie nodded to the man and then motioned at the table. "Please, sit down. You must have questions."

"Cartloads of them, indeed," the old man agreed while his female servant pulled a chair for him, while the male scribe took the seat at his right side. Fascinated, Gariye eyed the Spellstone that stood not far off him on the table. "Oh, that is fascinating. What are they, if you do not mind me asking?"

"We call them Spellstones. They have immense functional meaning, and are obviously fairly interesting to look at," Kingsley said, sitting down as well. Elizabeth did the same, as did Harry with nervous looking Hermione and Ron taking the seats at his left side.

"First of all, I would like to say thank you, for agreeing to meet us here," Kingsley started the meeting. "I understand it must have been somewhat disquieting to come to such a place on such a short notice, and I apologise for that…"

"Oh no, not at all. I am thrilled to be here, absolutely thrilled," the old man assured. "The city of the Ancestors, well, I've heard stories about it all my live, everyone has! I did not think I would ever see it, of course, so you must understand my excitement. Everyone in Dagan who has so much as heard of this meeting is, I assure you."

"So, you have heard about Atlantis before?" Annie asked curiously.

"Well, of course. There is not a soul in this galaxy who hasn't, I believe - but… did you not know what?" Gariye asked, confused, while at his side the silent scribe had already taken out several sheets of parchment and begun to write. "Surely you must have!"

"No, I'm afraid we're very much new to this galaxy," Harry said, giving a sideways glance at Hermione and then smiling at the spokesperson. "But perhaps that is a tale for later."

"Well, it is a tale I would very much like to hear," Gariye said, glancing at his scribe who added few lines to his manuscript. "We were under the impression that you were the Ancestors returned."

Kingsley opened his mouth, as did Elizabeth, but Annie cut in before either of them could say anything, giving a sideways glance at Harry. "Ten thousand years is a long time, elder," she said. "Who is to say what could have happened in those years? The ancestors as they were are gone, as far as we know, but their legacy lives on here, in this city and in us, though I can only hope that one day we can attain their wisdom."

"The thing is, the way back to Atlantis was blocked for eons - we only discovered it some time back, and greatly by accident," Harry continued, taking her cue. "Since then we have done what we can to restore Atlantis back to its former glory, and to learn from the well if information left behind by those who came before us. But, like the Trading Councillor says, it has been so long. Much is left to rediscover."

While Elizabeth gave him a slightly confused look, Gariye stroked his chin thoughtfully, eying Harry and Annie. "Am I to believe that in the intervening years you have forgotten yourselves?" he asked slowly.

"The world we come from is one of mixed races and beings, of nations and beliefs. In the years since the Ancients - which is what we call the Ancestors - moved to live out the remainder of their lives… much has been lost," Harry nodded, glancing around the table. "As things stand now hope to do right by Atlantis, to live up to the task given to us. But, as it is, we aren't as many in number as we would hope and our resources are… limited."

"A task, hm…" Gariye murmured, eying him. "I would very much like to discuss more of this, but I sense this is not the time. If you are lacking in means, then it should be that which we concentrate onto first. The Learning Councillor," he nodded at Elizabeth, "informs me that you are desperately looking for trading partners."

"That we are. As things stand we can manage, and though Atlantis currently stands in middle of a ocean, there is land on this planet that we are in process of cultivating, and we can grow the basic necessities here, on the city piers," Annie said, leaning forward. "However there are is issue of more exotic materials that we do not have a surplus of. Such as animal hide, meat, metals… and we are also lacking in some expertise such as weaving, that will eventually begin to hinder us."

"Hm. I believe we can help you there. Dagan is not most plentiful as game goes, but we have domesticated several animals that are now used to supply for our need for meat - and there is always some surplus we trade with other worlds. Metals and ores will not be a problem I believe, we have several mines in upper Ealdon alone that produce more than for our basic needs. And I suspect that among the people of Dagan there are more than enough of those who would happily guide you in weaving and creation of looms and other tasks," Gariye agreed thoughtfully. "But a trade must be equal on both sides, of course."

"Of course. We don't have much, but I have prepared a list of items and services we might be able to provide in trade," Annie said, and the back and forth of offers and counter offers begun. While she went over her list, Harry realised with something akin to worry how little they really had. It was mostly trinkets that she offered - food, the herbs or potions, furniture, clothing, none of it hadn't even made the list because they needed them more themselves.

As Annie and Gariye discussed it, with Elizabeth offering few insights here and there, Harry leaned towards Kingsley. "This won't do," he said under his breath. "We have nothing to offer, do we?"

"She hasn't yet gotten to the part of the list about magical services we might be able to provide, but I told her to keep it to herself unless she was absolutely certain there was nothing else left to offer," Kingsley answered with a sigh, rubbing a hand over his forehead. "Services of a wizard might be all we can offer right now, until we can get some - any - sort of industry going. We could offer some of the Ancient technology, one or two Vacuumers maybe, but…"

But they couldn't, not really. They had no way of evaluating their worth and as it was now, all of the Ancient technology was too strange and too precious to risk. Sighing, Harry shook his head and turned to Hermione. "You've been working with Atlantis's systems. Didn't the ancients make anything, as in, produce something enough to sell it?" he asked somewhat desperately under his breath. "In a city of this size there has to be some sort of industrial section. Even a small one, _anything_."

"As I've gathered, Atlantis was their capital - they produced everything elsewhere, on colonies, outposts, separate factory ships, and all of those were lost in the war," Hermione answered. "The only producing they did here in Atlantis was purely scientific."

"Well…" Ron murmured on her other side, rubbing his neck. "There is the salt, though. That's pretty useful, isn't it? For cooking and all…"

Harry blinked while Hermione turned to the redhead. "What?" they asked together while Harry caught Evvie who had been sneaking out of his pocket. "Salt?" he asked, just to be sure.

Ron shifted uneasily, giving them a sheepish look. "Well, I've been doing a lot of odd jobs around the city - I was helping dad clean some tanks the other day, something about water filtration or something like that? Anyway, there was a whole lot of salt there. I mean tons of the stuff."

"Salt, salt…" Harry frowned, thinking about it. There was something in the back of his head, old memory - from when he had been going to muggle school. "Hermione, wasn't salt pretty valuable hundreds of years ago back on Earth?"

"Yes… yes it was, oh Ron, you're a _genius_! Salt is one of the by-products of the process that filters the ocean water for consumption in Atlantis!" Hermione whispered excitedly and turned to Harry. "I read about it, back when I was in primary school - I was writing an essay about the ancient Romans. Salt can be used pretty much everything, making food, treating hides, cleaning metal, surfaces - it's even used in candle making, in gardening, in medical treatment. It was invaluable in pre-technological society. And pretty useful in technological one too."

"That's great, that's _really great_, but is the salt Atlantis produces good enough for that sort of use?" Harry asked quickly. "Does the process, I don't know, turn it poisonous or acidic or something?"

"I could check - I'd only need a sample of the salt and I'd be able to scan it and tell how much of a difference there is between the by-product salt and what we normally use," Hermione offered.

"Do it," Harry nodded and as she stood up to leave, Harry turned to Kingsley. "We might have something," he said to the man under his breath, and quickly explained the thought Ron had brought up to the man. Kingsley's eyebrows shot up and Harry smiled tightly. "Hermione's just dashing to check if we can offer it. If we can, we might have something."

"Well, that would be a lucky break, but only if the people of Dagan would actually need it," Kingsley noted.

"Let's find out," Harry answered and then nodded to Elizabeth to join them. With a apologetic smile to Annie and Gariye, she stood up and came to stand behind Harry and Kingsley. "Elizabeth," Harry started quietly, so that their guests wouldn't hear. "Gariye said that they have mines in Dagan. Are any of those salt mines, do you know?"

"Salt mines?" she asked under her breath, and frowned. "Well, not that I've heard of. Why?"

"We might be sitting on one, and we were wondering if salt were the sort of thing the Dagan people might be interested in," Kingsley whispered.

"Oh. _Oh_," Elizabeth whispered. "Oh, that is brilliant. Why didn't we think of that before?"

"No idea, Hermione's just off checking if it's something we could trade with," Harry answered - just as they heard a sound of apparition just beyond the door, and then Hermione was re entering the room, with light in her eyes, and one of the ancient scanners in her hand.

"It's perfect," she enthused, as soon as she was within hearing range - alarming Gariye's servant slightly and making her glance at them. Smiling apologetically, Hermione bent down to whisper to Harry and Kingsley. "I checked it. Pure sodium chloride, one hundred percent. No other residue minerals, no other compounds and, just to be on safe side, I also checked it for any possible radiation and there was none. It's purer than anything you could find on Earth."

"And how much of it do we have?" Kingsley asked.

"Tons. At least eight tons as far as I could see. I don't know what's the rate of production - how long it's been accumulating but -" Hermione trailed way, glancing at Elizabeth.

"But with that amount we have something to start with, definitely," Elizabeth agreed, the same light of excitement coming to her eyes as well. "And it is entirely possible we can tweak the filters so that the production of salt will be increased. If we can, then… then we have a viable industry right there."

"Salt industry," Kingsley mused, like tasting the words. "There's a future I did not foresee for us."

"But it is a very good future, if we can make use of it," Harry answered and glanced at Elizabeth. "Let Annie know before she starts selling our talented witches and wizards to servitude, please?"

"Right, of course," she nodded and quickly circled around the table, while Hermione retook her seat.

"If this works, it might turn out that we have a new viable occupation in the city - one of the most important ones, actually, depending on how it goes," Kingsley noted. "I imagine that salt need packaging, not to mention about delivery. It should do some good for the people."

"Quite," Harry agreed and glanced at Ron, who had been listening to the proceedings with somewhat thoughtful frown. Across the table Elizabeth was done whispering to Annie's ear - the Trading Councillor's eyes had grown a little wider with surprise. "That was good call, Ron. I thought it was a good idea bringing you."

"Yes, well. It was just random though, I didn't think it would be that important," Ron mused, scratching his neck thoughtfully. "Another thing I was thinking was water."

Harry blinked. "…Water," he repeated slowly.

"We have unlimited amount of drinking water here. I've seen those tanks - they're as big as towers. We don't use probably even fraction of it, and rest of it goes to waste," Ron shrugged. "Who knows, maybe someone else has the use for it. Muggles have to pay for clean water, don't they? At least that I've heard…"

Harry could do little more than stare at his best friend in wordless wonder, while Hermione did the same at his side. Ron blinked at them with confusion. "What? It was just a thought."

xx

Geez, it took a while to get the spark to finish this chapter. I've had most of it written a while now, but the whole scene with Gariye took something special.

I can't and won't take the credit of the salt thing - that is an idea I got from a comment from absolutely wonderful SGA fic by the name of _City on the Edge of Forever, the pilot_ by _synecdochic_ - google it if you haven't read it yet, it's absolutely wonderful. Can't remember the exact comment and can't find it now, but someting about the expedition sitting on literal salt mine and stupidity of doing nothing about it was that person was, all kudos to them for a freaking awesome idea. (Found the original comment, it was by _kiranovember_. Kudos to them)

My apologies for possible grammar errors and such.


End file.
